Strategic defence programme may not take off after treasury shoots down request for an extra R120m to make new weapons operational

Cape Town : The defence department is in danger of not being able to fund the integration of weapons bought as part of new strategic defence packages.

The department has classified the problem as a "critical risk" needing extra funding from national treasury, which it has asked for an additional R120m to make the weapons operational.

B ut the department will only receive a fraction of that in the national budget later this month.

If the ships, aircraft, helicopters and submarines are to be made operational, other defence funds will have to be used.

The department's chief director of strategic management , Antonie Visser, told Parliament's defence committee yesterday the department had identified 316 "risks" in its strategic plan.

Of these, 36 were critical and 14 options for tackling them were developed. Four were presented to treasury for consideration for funding over budget baseline.

Visser said the department had asked for an extra R47m this year for integrating the defence packages, but ha d only been given R26m.

For the 2006-07 financial year, it wanted an extra R40m for integration, and has been allocated R22m. In 2007-08, a request for R31m was reduced to R13m.

Visser reported that, particularly in maritime defence, provision of "logistic support, ordnance and facilities for the new corvettes and submarines was a critical challenge".

At air defence, the infrastructure on the ground and the weapons systems do not meet the required standards for combat readiness. Visser said there were declining numbers of skilled and experienced personnel in the air defence arena.

Another identified critical risk was the disposal of dangerous and unstable ammunition because of a lack of an ammunition disposal plan.

This was also one of the options sent to treasury for consideration for extra funding.

Of the R170m requested for the disposal of ammunition over the next three years, the department will receive R65m and again have to find money elsewhere in its budget .

Visser said the department also faced a serious challenge in meeting the international peacekeeping obligations to which it was being committed.

Essentially, there were not enough young soldiers, he said.

Those who could not be deployed because of age and health would be shed, but the exit strategy had yet to be decided on.

Already, some defence members not suitable for military work are being redeployed to the South African Police Service and undergoing retraining at Mankwe in North West for their new roles.

Visser said part of the strategic programme in 2005-06 was to implement the military skills development system, which would involve the recruitment of suitable young people to the military.

The committee considered a report on an oversight visit to the Saldanha Military Academy .

The committee was told that affirmative action, employment equity and transformation were being pursued too far at the academy, and this had resulted in declining academic standards.

There were complaints that whites were being marginalised.

The committee's draft report, set to be adopted next week, concludes that the academy is a national asset.

It said that while progress had been made on transformation, levels of professionalism and discipline needed to be maintained.

With acknowledgements to Wyndham Hartley and the Business Day.