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1491 THURSDAY, 20 NOVEMBER 2008
1492
(b) in what areas of the operation of
submarines and (c) what steps are being
taken to reverse the shortages? NW2152E
The MINISTER OF DEFENCE:
(a) and (b) The SA Navy did train sufficient
submariners for all three submarines.
However, it has lost numerous qualified
submariners.
(c) The SA Navy therefore now has sufficient
crew to man the two submarines
that are currently operational. The third
submarine is undergoing a maintenance
cycle and as such does not require an
entire crew.
The SA Navy has gone on record a
number of times to indicate that there is
a shortage of technical personnel in the
Navy. Due to the technical nature of the
submarines, the crew is predominantly
technically trained, which means that
there is currently a shortage of submarine
qualified personnel.
The SA Navy is in the process of
implementing a strategy aimed at re-
taining the scarce skills of submariners
and is actively targeting the submariners
in the Navy in order to ensure that
their services are retained.
Vacant posts for engineers
1436. Mr MMSWATHE(DA) asked the
Minister for Provincial and Local Government:
What is the breakdown of the (a)
actual number of engineer posts and (b)
the number of these posts that are vacant
in each municipality as at 1 August 2008?
NW2179E
The MINISTER FOR PROVINCIAL AND
LOCAL GOVERNMENT:
The hon member will note that information
has been obtained from Northern Cape and
Western Cape provinces. The outstanding
information form Eastern Cape, Gauteng,
Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo,
Mpumalanga, and North West province will
be made available to the hon member as
soon as it has been received.