Chapter 2 - P rogramme 1 - Department of Defence

| Chapter 4 - Programme 2: Landward Defence |
40% female candidates were not achieved as only 2%
and 32% in the respective categories were accepted
into the MSDS programme.
The challenges faced in terms of sustainment were
addressed through various initiatives. The continued
employment of an Industrial Support Concept
for Engineer C Vehicles in the DRC ensured that
the vehicles maintained the highest percentage of
serviceability and availability of all SANDF prime
mission equipment. The Apex Base, home of ADA
Reserves in Gauteng, which accommodates both
Regular and Reserve courses, has been upgraded.
The SA Army Engineers upgraded its own facilities
at Bethlehem to enhance training of MSDS
members and the SA Army contributed Rm22.4
from its own budget to address occupational health
and safety (OHS) requirements and facilities for its
MSDS. The SA Army Engineer Formation was
granted the mandate by the Ministry of Defence
to interact directly with the Engineering Council of
South Africa (ECSA) in an effort to recruit capacity
in the scarce skills environment of engineering.
Remarkable progress was made in the human
resources complement, in efforts to rebuild the
Technical Service Corps Reserve units. During the
past year, a total of 91 members entered this Corps,
mainly by converting from the Army Territorial
Reserve to the Conventional Reserve.
Army social responsibility initiatives to assist in
reskilling members leaving the Service have also
borne fruit. A total of 233 members successfully
completed their Code 8 licence training and were
transferred to the SAPS on 30 December 2007.
An initial first contract was successfully negotiated
with Imperial Holdings (Fleet Services) to train 500
Regular volunteers for the public/private transport
industry towards a Code 14 heavy-duty driver’s
licence. The contract stipulates that the 500 members
must be provided over a period of five years. The first
pilot group of 31 volunteers commenced with their
training on 15 November 2007 at 9 SAI Battalion.
Liaison also took place with a private engineering
company, Molukutho Engineering, with regard to a
reskilling opportunity and employment on offshore
oil rigs. The SA Army will provide the facilities,
whilst the engineering company will provide the
equipment and training.
As previously reported, facilities and equipment are
in a state of decline due to the cost of maintenance
and repair and extended lifecycle use, amongst
other factors. Rm22 of the Army operating funds
was utilised in the facility’s recoverable environment
Annual Report FY 2007 - 2008 104
| Department of Defence |
and limited amounts were utilised in the day-today
maintenance. Various alternatives are being
considered to address this situation, of which the
allocation of additional funding by Parliament in
future years to modernise the Landward Defence
Programme is an overriding option. In preparation
for this eventuality, and in order to ensure that such
funding is used optimally and directed at the required
landward defence needs, several expert seminars
were held during the past year. Of note is the South
African Army Seminar 21, held in February 2008.
The seminar explored the landward capability and
was aimed at conducting a future-oriented analysis
to explore international and regional trends/threats/
realities and their impact on peace, conflict and
war. The seminar included expert presenters from
Africa and almost all other continents. Participants
included members from the Portfolio Committee on
Defence. In tandem with the theme, an informative
Technology Workshop was held in March 2008,
during which the validity of the current SA Army
technology strategy was confirmed and new trends
and their applicability to SA Army requirements
were identified. A comprehensive strategic scenario
planning session, with a multidisciplinary team
comprising members from the SA Army, Reserve
Force Council, the Portfolio Committee on Defence
and National Treasury, was also conducted during
June 2007.
Some supply, support and services functions could
not be implemented within the SA Army during
the last financial year (FY 2006/07) due to the
lack of capacity to execute these functions. The
SA Army has received certain logistic delegations
from the Secretary for Defence, which will be
fully implemented once the command and control
channels have been clarified. Although procurement
delegations have been received, they will only
be implemented once training of procurement
personnel has been completed. Self-accounting
status allocation to units within the Army could not
take place due to non-adherence to self-accounting
status requirements, i.e. structures and capability.
The SA Army was tasked to establish a “Works
Regiment” on behalf of the DOD, as an initiative to
improve the state of DOD facilities. A project team
was established and is in the process of engaging
the private sector to assist in the practical training
phase of the members. One hundred members
started training in January 2008 and another
200 are scheduled to start training in July 2008.
Additional funding of Rm178 for this initiative
was made available for the three years commencing
FY 2008/09.