What SA really can't afford is a ragtag SANDF

Yesterday's admission by a top military official that the cash-strapped defence force might have to retrench personnel and shelve critical acquisition projects should jolt our political leaders into action.

According to the secretary of defence, Sam Gulube, a R 1.1-billion budget shortfall means that the SANDF might have to undertake a major cost-cutting exercise if it is going to continue paying salaries.

Gulube warned that the cash crunch meant the defence force might be forced to cut down on operations and acquisitions, and that various options were being considered, including downsizing personnel numbers, freezing vacant posts and extending working hours.

Military analysts have warned that cutting staff and scrapping the acquisition of essential military hardware such as heavy-lift and maritime patrol aircraft - some of the latter in service since World War2 - would reduce our soldiers to the role of border guards.

The 2014 SA Defence Review, approved by the cabinet in March, warned of the critical decline of the armed forces due to ''neglect, lack of proper ammunition and ageing aircraft''.

The review recommended that annual funding for the SANDF - currently about R43-billion - be ramped up to R116-billion if we wanted to attain the highest level of military security.

This would amount to about 3.3% of GDP and is unlikely to be achieved because of this country's many pressing socioeconomic problems.

But if South Africa is to continue with its vital peacekeeping duties on the continent - the recent successful mission in the troubled eastern DRC is a case in point - the politicians would do well to meet the military halfway and find the money to ease the SANDF's burden.

Let us not forget that 14 South African soldiers were killed on the streets of Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, by advancing rebels last year, partly because they were under-resourced and outgunned.

Or that we could not immediately get aircraft to fly the rest of the besieged South African contingent in that war-torn country to safety.