The South African National Defence Force has destroyed or sold numerous tanks, aircraft and ships in the last year, a report to parliament reveals.

Since August 2003, the SANDF has destroyed 14 Olifant Mk1A main battle tanks and 14 Rooikat armoured cars.

Fourteen more are up for sale, a briefing to the parliamentary defence portfolio committee reveals.

Also destroyed were two strike craft, the SAS Shaka and SAS Sekukhuni, two Ton-class minesweepers - SAS Kimberley and Windhoek - and the submarine SAS Spear.

According to another briefing, the Shaka was destroyed in April by an Exocet anti-ship missile during a test to check the working of the combat systems of South Africa's newly acquired patrol corvettes.

The scrap value of the two minesweepers was R64 000.

Also reduced to scrap were an undisclosed number of World War 2-era 5.5 inch field guns, now mostly seen in museums.

The SAS Jan Smuts was luckier: the hulk was sold for R50 000.

The former supply ship SAS Outeniqua was sold as a "going concern" and earned the state R40 million.

In another sale, 354 Ratel infantry fighting vehicles were sold for R1.1 million. Another 120 could be sold later.

In a further economy, 100 Mk1 35mm GDF anti-aircraft cannon were sold for $500 000.

In total, the state received just over R183 million from the sale of redundant stock and equipment, including R64 000 for 2 300 old parachutes.

Still up for sale are 80 1970s-vintage Eland armoured cars, 117 20mm and 32 23mm anti-aircraft guns and 24 14.5mm machine guns.

The SA Army also donated 450 SA Military (Samil) trucks to Uganda, in addition to selling 837 for R31.9m and putting another 837 forward for disposal.

With acknowledgements to Sapa and the Cape Argus.