It’s open season for criminal syndicates operating along South Africa’s coast and in its airspace as swingeing budget cuts have forced the navy and air force to scale back heavily on patrols.
The air force, which has been in decline for the past 12 years, recorded a total of 6,904 flying hours in the last financial year, little more than half its 12,000 annual target, while navy vessels managed only 2,641 sea hours, missing their 8,000-hour target. This is according to the department of defence’s latest annual report.
Leading defence analyst Helmoed Heitman warned that drastic government action was needed to halt the gradual “implosion” of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF).
Drug smugglers and poachers are said to be operating with impunity, as the department of forestry, fisheries & the environment (DFFE) also lacks capacity to enforce the law. Crimes such as abalone poaching are estimated to cost South Africa about R1bn a year.
“Yachts and other recreational vessels have almost free rein and are not inspected,” said Prof Hennie van As, director of the Centre for Law in Action and head of FishForce, a fisheries law enforcement academy at Nelson Mandela University.
“In Knysna, foreign citizens had a luxury boat they used to go to sea and collect drugs from passing vessels. It is a well-established fact that the illicit harvesting, and eventual sale of abalone is controlled by large and very well-organised Chinese criminal groups in collaboration with local gangs.”
Drug smugglers using light aircraft are also allegedly landing on farms with private landing strips, which the air force in its heyday would have been able to intercept.
The SANDF’s woes include ageing equipment, an R8bn backlog in maintenance, expansion of its mandate, constraints on the national fiscus and lack of financial controls.
Auditor-general Tsakani Maluleke sounded alarm bells over the state of the navy and air force when briefing parliament’s portfolio committee on defence last month.
“The decline in available capabilities has had an impact on training and development with several aircrew staff losing their currency,” she said.
“The decline can be attributed to the reduction in Armscor dockyard’s capacity as well as the challenges at Denel, which have led to a significant increase in their backlog. The lack of funding and the deteriorating state of the department’s capabilities was evidenced in the non-achievement of planned targets on the number of flying hours and the number of sea hours.”
This had forced the air force to rely on simulator training, she said.
Both the South African Air Force and South African Navy have had to reduce what they can provide within the reduced budgets, and this has affected the SANDF’s ability to maintain sufficient and consistent levels of available aircraft, naval vessels and other associated capabilities
— Department of defence
The department of defence said in a response to questions from the Sunday Times that it was still fulfilling its constitutional obligations to safeguard maritime and airspace sovereignty, despite “serious budgetary constraints”.
“Considering these challenges, both the South African Air Force [SAAF] and South African Navy have had to reduce what they can provide within the reduced budgets, and this has affected the SANDF’s ability to maintain sufficient and consistent levels of available aircraft, naval vessels and other associated capabilities,” the department said.
According to reports by the aviation news site Times Aerospace, at the end of last year only two of the SAAF’s 26 Gripen fighter planes and three of its 24 Hawk Mk.120 advanced trainers were airworthy. It had 41 Gripen and Hawk pilots but few of them were able to fly on a regular basis.
The South African Revenue Service (Sars) said that its customs officers, in co-operation with the SANDF and the police, had made strides in fighting illicit activities on the country’s shores.
Sars spokesperson Siphithi Sibeko said there had been “significant busts” of narcotics and other illicit goods over the past five years.
“But we anticipate that these are small compared to possible illicit movement of goods landed along our vast coastline. To give some context — there are 21 river estuaries feeding into the Indian Ocean just between Gqeberha and East London alone. Given South Africa’s long coastline, it is a massive challenge to properly police it.
“The main challenge in the maritime domain remains the smuggling of abalone and narcotics — all run through organised crime syndicates. All of these remain focus areas in the priority-crime task teams deployed along the coast,” Sibeko said.
“The multi-agency task force, which includes the SANDF, remains in place, but in most instances is hampered by budgetary constraints of the respective role players to cover the vast coastline,” he said.
The DOD said in its annual report before parliament that the decline in its capacity was due to an R8bn maintenance backlog by the department of public works & infrastructure (DPWI) and Armscor’s inability to carry out planned maintenance.
Two years ago, briefings by the two departments to parliament’s standing committee on appropriations revealed that the DPWI had received 114 repairs and refurbishment requests but that funds had been allocated for only 29.
The DPWI, responsible for infrastructure maintenance for the DOD, was instructed in July 2021 to put on hold projects that were in the design and development stages, pending finalisation of its mandate.
In its annual report the DOD said the air force and the navy had been hobbled by the maintenance issue.
“The flying system groups were challenged by limited aircraft availability, attributable to the lack of support contracts for aircraft maintenance requirements and diminishing flight test capabilities,” it said.
“The flying system groups of the SAAF could not ensure that all aircraft kept to the planned force preparation hours, resulting in a lack of adequate force preparation hours to ensure aircrew competencies and to maintain training standards.
The government needs to wake up and understand the disconnect between what it is willing to fund (a border guard at best) and what it wants the defence force to do
— Helmoed Heitman, defence analyst
“The navy could not provide the required capabilities to execute maritime coastal patrols.”
A military insider told the Sunday Times the decline in capacity meant the navy and air force were unable to effectively intercept criminal syndicates using light aircraft and speed boats.
“During the day the trawlers are not moving but at night they harvest anything from our marine life and the exclusive economic zone,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to speak to the media.
The DOD acknowledged in its latest annual report that it has not been able to conduct long-range maritime patrols.
South Africa has a bilateral agreement with Cuba, Operation Thusano, which provides for defence co-operation in aircraft maintenance; vehicle upgrades and refurbishing; and dental and medical equipment repair and maintenance. However the AG has flagged the deal — which has cost taxpayers more than R2bn — as having no benefit to the country.
Heitman said budgetary constraints, ageing equipment and ever-increasing demands on the military such as peacekeeping duties threatened to make the defence force “implode”.
“The government needs to wake up and understand the disconnect between what it is willing to fund (a border guard at best) and what it wants the defence force to do — maintain defence capability, deploy major units into Africa, patrol borders and waters, monitor air space, support the police, build bridges, repair sewerage systems, stand by in hospitals during strikes et cetera.
“They are asking the impossible and that will lead to the defence force imploding. It will be slow and not dramatically visible, but it is already happening and is getting close to being irreversible in even the medium term,” said Heitman.
Despite the arms deal acquisitions in the 1990s, some of the SANDF’s equipment dated back to the 1970s.
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