Publication: Business Day Issued: Date: 2009-07-04 Reporter: Wyndham Hartley

Defence head ‘sympathetic’ to Denel’s R1,7bn request

 

Publication 

Business Day
Date 2009-07-04
Reporter Wyndham Hartley
Web Link www.bday.co.za


Embattled state arms manufacturer Denel could soon be rescued through a recapitalisation package and a return to its original home in the defence force, Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said on Friday.

Sisulu made the call for Denel to return to the defence family in her budget vote in the National Assembly, which was dominated by a furious row over the state of readiness of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) and her refusal to give a public briefing on the matter to Parliament’s defence committee.

Denel recently asked the government for R1,7bn to get itself back on stream. In the past 10 years, R100bn of taxpayers’ money has been spent keeping government enterprises going.

When Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan recently warned that unprofitable state enterprises could be sold off commercially, she was called to Luthuli House for a meeting with African National Congress secretary-general Gwede Mantashe and the government once again committed itself to owning and rescuing them.

Sisulu told Parliament that the defence establishment “intended to negotiate Denel back into the ambit of defence” and that she had already had discussions with Hogan where she made the point that Denel should be “strategically realigned”.

“Denel is a strategic security manufacturing asset for defence and we would like to retain it as such,” Sisulu said, adding that there was a need for an exhaustive “interrogation” of the defence industry.

She said that Denel and Armscor should be examined , and said her department would examine Armscor ­ its procurement arm ­ to ensure proper management and governance.

Sisulu expressed confidence that, if Denel was brought back under the direction of the defence department, with proper command and control it could be successfully turned around.

She said that Denel was asking the government for recapitalisation and said she was “ sympathetic to that request”.

She said this decision would be made by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.

During the debate on her budget Sisulu came under attack from the Democratic Alliance’s shadow defence minister David Maynier who said that the public did not know about the combat readiness of the SANDF because the department of defence “won’t tell us”.

“The minister appears to be doing her level best to cover up the state of combat readiness of the SANDF,” Maynier said.

“We were told that the Department of Defence would not provide a briefing on the state of combat readiness of the defence force because the minister had not been briefed.

“But now we are told the Department of Defence will not provide a full and open briefing because it may compromise national security.”

Sisulu said Maynier’s remarks were some of the most ignorant ever heard in Parliament.

She accused him of theatrics and insisted that the only way in which such a briefing would be given to Parliament was behind closed doors so as to protect the security of the state.

Maynier responded: “We may not know all the details about the state of combat readiness of the defence force. What we do know, however, is that the defence force is in deep trouble.

“We have soldiers without vehicles; we have ships without sailors; we have planes without pilots; and we have military hospitals without doctors.

“We have soldiers in barracks, not in the field; we have ships alongside, not at sea; and we have aircraft in hangers, not in the air.

“We have an army that is overstretched; a navy which is understretched; and an air force with nothing to stretch.”*1

With acknowledgements to Wyndham Hartley and Business Day.


*1       A good one.

But actually, the SA Air Force has around 38 Cheetahs Cs in its inventory, only it doesn't have the pilots to fly them.

And then budget that was originally allocated to operate them was taken away and re-allocated to the Gripen force - but only nine Gripens have been delivered so far and that is very, very recently.

The SA Air Force does not need the 28 Gripen fighter jets and because they were obtained through bribery, they should be sent back to the UK to British Aerospace who can either sell them on to the Czech Republic or to Sweden from whence they originally came.

Lockheed Martin is now saying that the latest version of its F-16 is the most advanced 4th generation fighter in the world and these come at a much better price than the Gripen.

For Southern Africa, one wouldn't even need the latest version and there are real bargains to be had with barely used F-16s.

The SA Air Force also has about a dozen Hercules C-130 airlifters, all of which were or were meant to be extensively refurbished by Marshalls of the UK and Sextant of France in the mid-1990s.

The US Air Force is investing extensively in an increased fleet of C-130Js because it is such a successful, flexible and cost-effective aeroplane.

The SA Air Force is purposefully forgetting about is numerous C-130s.

Probably just like it conveniently forgot about its Transall C-160s which were left to stagnate at the used end of Waterkloof Air Force Base until the likes of Ron Haywood and Joe Modise try to get them for themselves to refurbish and onsell for a very tidy profit.

But no, the SA DoD wanted in at all costs on the Airbus A400M jet heavy airlifter deal, which the country does not need and cannot afford, because certain parties were getting paid bribes and EADS (remember Mickey Woerfel and his 33 Mercs? *2) was being compensated for getting nothing much out of the first big Arms Deal.

Now the A400M deal is going south, so it's time to watch this space on who's who at the trough gets in on the deal to replace it.

I also am not sure why the SA Navy is understretched.

It has far more vessels than it knows what to do with - except blow up frigate main engines and submarine battery systems and get rear admirals to lay charges against other rear admirals..

All in all the SANDF at this point in time is a complete, but expensive joke.

But what a find as minister to solve all problems defence.

Why, the beloved country?


*2      One recipient of these 33 Mercs was the then Chief of the SANDF and current Minister of Communication, Gen S. Nyanda.

Another three recipients were the Chairman of Armscor Ron Haywood, the CEO of Armscor Llew Swan and the Chief of the SA Air Force, Lt Gen Ralph Beukes.

Yet they only went after only Tony Yengeni and only got him convicted because of his arrogance and later fraud. He, like Schabir Shaik, became the touchables due to other factors factors such as, inter alia, alignments. Now that there are new circumstances, these alignments are remarkably positive forces for escaping the penitentiary and the consequent transmogrification to untouchables.

One thing is for sure, Mickey Woerfel, who was head of DACA (Daimler-Chrysler Aerospace) in South Africa and had nothing directly to do with Mercedes-Benz, did not give away these giant discounts out of the goodness of his or his company's hearts. There will always be a payback time, even if they have to wait a decade or more.

They look so good because they eat (at the trough) so good.