CAPE TOWN — Former defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota leaves his post with the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) suffering from vacancies in a quarter of its critical skilled positions.

The annual report of the defence department from Lekota and the late January Masilela (secretary for defence), tabled in Parliament yesterday, also received a qualified audit report from auditor- general Terence Nombembe.

The report show ed the most serious vacancies exist for engineers in all branches of service with 42,75% of posts vacant.

This was closely followed by a 36,95% vacancy rate in air crews. Recent reports indicated that the air force has been hobbled by the departure of pilots and technicians as they are poached by the private sector and foreign countries.

More than a quarter of the posts at the military equivalent of air traffic control are vacant, and a similar situation exists for technicians and military nursing staff as well as antiaircraft personnel.

The vacancy rate across all classes of employee — not just the critical occupations — at the department is 15,3% with about 14000 posts vacant, according to the report. Military intelligence was hardest hit with a vacancy rate of 37,45%. Landward defence was least affected with a 7,37% vacancy rate.

Nombembe reported that in the “employee benefit division: capped leave commitments” there were inadequate monitoring functions, and insufficient audit evidence provided for him to confirm the accounts relating to R865m.

He said that no alternative audit measures could be performed due to limitations in the information available.

In addition the auditor-general found problems to the tune of R360m in the management of tangible and intangible assets, and R504m regarding contingent liabilities.

According to the 2007 -08 Defence Annual Report released this week, the SANDF is facing serious vacancy issues in key defence areas, which could compromise SA’s security.

Democratic Alliance (DA) defence spokesman Rafeek Shah said: “What these vacancy figures mean is that our military’s force readiness and capacity to respond to internal and external requirements is substantially compromised.

“Not only are we facing serious issues with equipment suitability and resource shortages, but our day-to-day military functions are also not operating at full capacity.

“Such vacancy issues must also be affecting our ability to make use of the Arms Deal procurements.

“People with skills and expertise are leaving the SANDF for greener pastures.

“With better retention strategies, we could be motivating such people to stay, instead of incurring the costs of replacing them,” he said.

“Last year alone, more than 6700 people left the SANDF and 1660 of these were from critical occupations.”

“While the Military Skills Development System seeks to recruit and train new entrants into the military, these entrants have little or no experience, and are no substitute for departing personnel with years of work and combat experience,” Shah said.

With acknowledgements to Wyndham Hartley and Business Day.