R823m SANDF deployment under scrutiny

SANDF deployment under scrutiny as DA questions R823m cost and transparency amid Cape Flats crime concerns A Cape Town mother wept inconsolably, struggling to utter a single word, after both her sons — one after the other — were shot and killed at the weekend. The brutal deaths of her sons, Luchen Samuels, 19, and Angelo Hufke, 32, whose bodies she had to identify alone, just years after she buried her firstborn, who died the same way, come exactly 47 days after President Cyril Ramaphosa promised to deploy the army to the Mother City. And though soldiers are finally set to put boots on the ground tomorrow in the crime-ravaged city, at a staggering cost of R832m, for families like hers, it comes painfully too little, too late.

Samuels and Hufke, of Uitsig Avenue, were among five people killed in Gugulethu and Philippi East on Saturday, police spokesperson Colonel Andre Traut said. Three other youngsters aged 16, 19, and 29 were wounded during the shooting and transported to a medical facility for treatment. But when will the bloodshed stop, and will the deployment make a difference?

Politicians, experts, and community members told the Cape Argus they are asking how the R832 million will be spent. The Democratic Alliance is demanding a full breakdown of the SANDF deployment cost, warning that Parliament cannot accept the figure without clear details on how it was calculated or how the money will be spent. DA NCOP member on security and justice,Nicholas Gotsell, said reports of high expenditure on Armed Forces Day celebrations, including subsistence and travel costs of up to R70 000 per person, raised serious concerns about financial management within the Department of Defence.

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“Reckless or poorly controlled spending is not merely embarrassing, it is a direct risk to operational readiness and public trust,” he said. Gotsell added that the Department of Defence has struggled to obtain clean audits in recent years, and that a significant portion of ongoing investigations by the Special Investigating Unit and the Hawks within the security cluster relate to the department.

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