The Minister of Defence, Angie Motshekga (Photo: Phill Magakoe/AFP)
There can be no price on people’s lives, but there must always be accountability for how public money is spent – especially when hundreds of millions of rand are involved and when the same department repeatedly fails to meet basic standards of financial management.
That’s what Nicholas Gotsell, DA MP and member of the select committee on security and justice, says after the latest report was published on how the Department of Defense manages their financial affairs.
According to the report, this department spends millions on parties, luxury accommodation, golf days and trips of up to R70 000 per individual.
Gotsell believes that this report’s findings demonstrate exactly why parliament cannot take the department’s financial assurances at face value.
He emphasizes that this is not an isolated incident and that the department has been unable to obtain a clean audit from the auditor general for years.
“Of the investigations currently carried out by the Special Investigation Unit (SUE) and the Hawks in the security group, 34% relate to the Department of Defense and military veterans amounting to R2.5 billion. Against this background, reckless or poorly controlled spending is not only embarrassing – it is a direct risk to operational readiness and public trust.”
The DA also expressed its concern on Friday during a meeting of the joint standing committee on defence.
Gotsell says Angie Motshekga, the Minister of Defense and Military Veterans, was present at this meeting but was excused when the committee investigated the critical matter of the President’s employment letters authorizing the impending SANDF deployment.
According to him, this was the second ANC minister who rejected the committee to provide answers to urgent deployment questions.
The DA objected to why Motshekga was excused, especially given the many unanswered questions regarding the timeline, planning, command and control structures, and above all, the very specific figure of R823 153 960 linked to the deployment.
“This is a figure that was already presented to parliament on March 6, but to date no detailed breakdown has been provided to justify how this amount was calculated or how it will be spent.”
Gotsell says this party has already formally requested that Motshekga and SANDF appear before the joint meeting of the joint standing committee on defense and the portfolio committee on police on Friday 27 March.
“A full and proper breakdown of the deployment costs of R823 million must be provided, including how the amount was determined and what safeguards are in place to prevent waste or corruption,” says Gotsell.