Like its new colleague the Border Management Authority (BMA), the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) has to put up with and under-funding and, to a lesser extent, short staffing.
In July, Commissioner Michael Masiapato’s fledgling BMA (it marked its second anniversary in October) told Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Appropriations (JSCA) and the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs (PCHA) its 2023/24 budget request was R2.9 billion but it received less than half (R1.34 billion). This allocation increased marginally to R1.4 billion in 2024/25, with R1.47 billion allocated for the current 2025/26 financial year.
Lieutenant General Lawrence Mbatha’s landward force, along with the rest of the SANDF, knows full well and has lived with effective decreases and only minimal funding increases from Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s National Treasury (NT) for more years than successive defence and military veterans’ ministers care to remember. Apart from putting the brakes on acquisition of replacement equipment, this has seen no increase in boots on the ground for the SANDF Operation Corona border protection tasking – still standing at 15 “sub-units”, mostly infantry companies, deployed along the 4 470 km plus land border.
Exact numbers of soldiers from the regular and reserve components as well as other SA Army formations deployed to protect border integrity are not known. In this regard African Defence Review Director Darren Olivier estimates the current 15 “sub-units” amount to between 2 300 and 2 500 soldiers deployed at any one time, working on the basis of 160 in an infantry rifle company.
Against this is the BMA, which a Parliamentarian said earlier this year has 673 “border law enforcement officers” on its total personnel strength of 2 606, including 400 newly appointed junior border guards. When fully staffed the BMA is mooted to have over 11 000 personnel.
Indications are around four thousand plus of these could come from the SA Police Service (SAPS) which, according to Democratic Alliance (DA) Member of Parliament (MP) Adrian Roos, are already assigned duties at air, land and sea ports of entry. They, like some Department of Home Affairs (DHA) officials, are set to move onto BMA personnel strength sooner rather than later in the wake of a meeting between now suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, replaced by Firoz Cachalia on 1 August, and the Home Affairs Ministry incumbent, Leon Schreiber. At the beginning of May, authorisation was given for the transfer to the BMA of police and Department of Home Affairs officials carrying out border functions.
As it presently stands the entity specifically tasked with border protection has the least number of border guards confined to 10 km on either side of land ports of entry, with the SA Army having around 2 300 soldiers on the ground doing the hard yards in often unhospitable terrain ranging from thick bush to desolated semi-desert and mountains. The most recent example of the dangers faced by soldiers on border protection was the apparently trampling to death of a soldier by an elephant in the Madimbo area of operations.
The South African Police Service remains at present a contributor to border security with officers based at air, land and sea ports of entry. There are about 4 400 police officers assigned to border control and protection duties.
In a joint presentation to Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Appropriations and the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs on 18 July, the BMA said the main risk it faces is limited capacity, which hampers its ability to effectively fulfil its mandate. This has been worsened by the lack of additional funding allocated to the entity, leaving it unable to recruit much-needed human resources or invest in technology that could alleviate pressure on existing staff. Moving forward, the BMA will prioritise filling critical positions, and is requesting additional funds through the Criminal Assets Recovery Account (CARA).
