Implications of the State of the Nation Address on the Defence Sector: briefing by the Parliamentary Researchers

This premium content has been made freely available

Defence and Military Veterans

27 February 2013
Chairperson: Mr M Motimele (ANC)
Share this page:

Meeting Summary

The Committee had on its agenda the consideration and adoption of Committee Minutes, the consideration of the Draft Committee First Term Programme and the consideration of a report on the implications of issues emanating from the 2013 State of the Nation Address.

Five sets of committee minutes were considered and adopted with mostly grammatical corrections made to the minutes.

The Committee deferred the adoption of its draft First Term Report to the 6th March 2013.

The Committee’s research unit presented a report on the implications of issues emanating from the 2013 State of the Nation Address on the defence sector. The report outlined five defence priorities, which were addressed in the State of the Nation Address. These issues included South Africa’s involvement in regional peace keeping operations, the role of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) in internal peacekeeping, the SANDF’s role in preventing poaching, and youth empowerment and skills development. The Committee agreed that the general call to combat corruption and maladministration was an aspect that had to be taken seriously by the Department of Defence and all other government entities.

The Committee adopted the report.

Meeting report

Introduction by Chairperson
The Chairperson welcomed members of the Committee and reminded them that the agenda of the day was a short one as the Committee was interested in the budget speech, which was going to take place later in the day. The Committee was interested in knowing how it could help the Department of Defence (the Department) in relation to the issues identified during the oversight visit. The budget speech that was going to be delivered by the Minister of Finance was going to inform the amount the extent to which the Committee would be able to assist the Department.

Consideration and Adoption of Committee Minutes
The Committee considered and adopted the minutes of its previous meetings. These minutes were supposed to be considered and adopted last year but the committee agreed to carry them forward to 2013.

Committee Minutes of the 9 October 2012
The minutes were considered adopted with minor grammatical corrections.

Committee Minutes of 17 October 2012
During the consideration of the minutes, Mr D Maynier (DA) said that it was important for the Committee to include in the minutes that the information that they had requested from the Department, had not yet been provided.

Ms P Daniels (ANC) said that the information and its provision thereof were not part of the discussions of the meeting of 17 October 2012 so they could not be included in the minutes. The Committee could do further follow-up with the Department relating to the information but they did not have to include such an item into the minutes of the meeting of the 17 October 2012.

Mr A Maziya (ANC) said that the Committee had to stick to the procedures of Parliament by stating in the minutes only what was discussed during the meeting. Any issues arising from the minutes, which required follow up should be discussed in another meeting as matters arising from the minutes of previous meetings.

The minutes were adopted with grammatical amendments.

Committee Minutes 23 October 2012
The Committee adopted the minutes.

Committee Minutes 24 October 2012
The minutes were adopted with amendments.

Committee Minutes 31 October 2012
The Committee adopted the minutes.

Consideration of the Draft Committee First Term Programme
Mr Maynier told the Committee that he had suggestions for the inclusion of certain items into the Draft Committee Programme for the first term.

The Committee agreed that the adoption of the Draft Programme should be referred to a further date to enable Mr Maynier to provide proposed amendments to the programme. 6 March 2013 was agreed upon as the date for the adoption of the draft programme.

Implication of issues emanating from the SONA 2013
A report was presented by the Committee’s research staff that contained an outline of the implications that the issues raised by the President’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) had on the defence sector.

The report had been circulated to Members of the Committee so the researchers were asked not to present the report in full.

The researcher unit’s presentation showed that there was little direct reference to the military sector in the 2013 SONA. However five issues of relevance were raised:

South Africa’s involvement in regional peace keeping operations;
The role of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) in internal peace keeping. In this regard, there was however no direct reference to the Department of Defence;
The SANDF role in preventing poaching;
Youth empowerment and skills development. In this regard, the Department had to consider and align its National Youth Service and the Military Skills Development System to the National Development Plan (NDP). 
The general call to combat corruption and maladministration was an aspect that had to be taken seriously by the Department of Defence and all other government entities. Investigations in the Department had commenced as the Department of Defence had the largest portion of funding spent on consultants by government departments.

Mr Maynier suggested that the Committee consider the Ministers of Defences’ debate speech on the SONA to get more clarity on the role of the SANDF in support of the South African Police Services (SAPS).

Mr E Mlambo (ANC) said that the deployment of the navy and the defence force around the border of Mozambique to fight piracy was a major issue to be considered.

The Chairperson thanked the Committee’s research unit for the report and said that the Committee was going to use the report to improve its oversight.

The Committee adopted the report.

The meeting was adjourned.


Documents

No related documents

Present

  • We don't have attendance info for this committee meeting

Download as PDF

You can download this page as a PDF using your browser's print functionality. Click on the "Print" button below and select the "PDF" option under destinations/printers.

See detailed instructions for your browser here.

Share this page: