DEFENCE and Military Veterans Minister Thandi Modise, delivering her budget vote speech on Tuesday, has said that the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) is currently unable to respond to critical events such as the humanitarian crisis in KwaZulu-Natal due to lack of resources.
Modise told Parliamentarians that the SANDF has been called upon to support civil intervention to ensure the delivery of basic services, including assisting the North-West Province with health services, the Department of Water and Sanitation with the Vaal River clean-up project, the National Disaster Management Centre with COVID-19 pandemic response, and Kwa-Zulu Natal flood relief.
This is in addition to 15 000 SANDF members deployed to quell civil unrest in July last year, and over a thousand soldiers deployed on peacekeeping missions abroad.
“The deployments speak to our responsibilities and there is no way we cannot be at the centre of saving lives. These deployments also come
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