Question NW2741 to the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans

Reply:

National Treasury’s (NT) final letter of allocation dated 6 February 2017 to the Department of Defence (DOD) confirmed the total allocation towards the payment of compensation for the FY2017/18 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) period and has been reduced by R5.5 billion.

Parliament has not reduced the operational commitments of the SANDF and therefore the SANDF cannot withdraw from external and internal deployments without Cabinet approval. It can also not reduce the number of personnel due to the fact that operational commitments will have to be discontinued.

(a) What is the total vacancies that currently exists in each branch of the SANDF?

In the light of the above the DOD maintains its HR strength as on 1 April 2017 (76,645) for the FY2017/18 that resulted in a projected over-expenditure of Rb1,4. These challenges were communicated to NT in numerous communique as well as the monthly Early Warning report. Therefore the DOD does not have vacant funded posts but 29,428 vacant unfunded posts.

(b) What are the salary levels of the specified vacancies?

These vacancies exist in all levels in the DOD, military and civilian.

(c) What amount in remuneration packages will be needed to fill the vacancies?

It will cost the DOD approximately Rb10 to fill these vacancies.