‘Spies could be watching’: Chairperson slams Navy Chief’s criticism

The chairperson of South Africa’s Portfolio Committee on Defence, Dakota Legoete, says that South Africa’s navy chief should not be expressing his funding frustrations on public platforms.

This comes after the South African Navy Chief, Vice Admiral Monde Lobese, said that South Africa’s seas were at risk at the SA Navy gala concert in Pretoria.

He said that this was due to the under-resourcing of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), which has weakened the country’s national security.

“While we, as a committee, agree with the contents of what he is saying, our major concern is where he says it,” Legoete told Newzroom Afrika.

“It’s very wrong because it gives credence to some international espionage and foreign intelligence agencies to understand what is happening in our country.”

The chairperson says that instead of pleading his case to the public, Lobese should be using the relevant platforms and institutions available to him to voice his concerns.

He said that this can be addressed to the National Security Council through the Defence Minister, Angie Motshekga, as well as through the President, who is the “general of all generals”.

Legoete added that Parliament ‘has yet to be confronted about the issue of underfunding’ by Lobese.

The committee has heard about the issue from the Chief of the SANDF, the Chief of Staff, and the Secretary of the SANDF about this, but not the Chief of the Navy.

Despite these efforts, Legoete says that the committee is “seized with the issue” and is unable to convince the government to increase the defence budget.

“We are pushing to increase defence spending from 0.7% of GDP to 1.5%,” he said. To this end, the committee held a joint meeting between Motshekga and the Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana.

“Other nations in the world spend 3% of their GDP on defence. According to the European Union resolution, countries are required to pay 5%. So the world is preparing for war.”

In the case of the navy, the underfunding of the SANDF has been realised in its inability to service its frigates and submarines, meaning nearly all remain out of operation.

The Auditor-General of South Africa reported that the Navy’s hours at sea have dropped from 7,338 in 2012/13 to 3,717 in 2024/25 — a 49% decrease.

“For seven years, the four frigates – SAS Amatola, SAS Isandlwana, SAS Spioenkop, and SAS Mendi – have been virtually non-operational,” Democratic Alliance spokesperson on defence, Chris Hattingh, said.

“The projects were grossly mismanaged, breaking procurement rules and causing massive cost overruns.”

Reason for frustration

While there may be good reasons for Legoete’s arguments, the credibility of lawmakers and politicians has been called into question, given the collapse of the SANDF, possibly prompting Lobese’s decision to go public.

This sentiment is particularly true for Motshekga, who repeatedly failed to appear before Parliament to account for failures in her department, despite being summoned several times.

Motshekga highlighted her department’s financial woes following its budget allocation for the 2025/26 financial year. However, attributed this to underfunding not the mismanagement of funds.

“We have raised the issue of the underfunding of the defence force, which is a major existential threat to the department,” she told Newzroom Afrika.

“According to the defence force, if we are to be where we want to be, the underfunding is in the range of R30 billion. But the fundamental issue we are raising is that the baseline needs to be increased.”

The AGSA reported irregular expenditure of R138.63 million. However, it noted that this figure was incomplete, as the department did not fully record its irregular spending.

An example of this irregular expenditure is Project Kgala, a continuation of Project Thusano — a skills transfer initiative between South Africa and Cuba aimed at providing technical and maintenance services to the SANDF.

According to the AGSA, the project contravened several of the National Treasury’s procurement regulations.

These include a lack of thorough market analysis, insufficient evidence provided about other suppliers, and no declaration of interest by the department.

Several non-competitive contracts under Project Thusano were deemed irregular, amounting to over R170 million.

The AGSA noted that the reason irregular expenditure persists is that it takes an average of seven years for the department to finalise investigations into irregular procurement.

The department currently has 195 investigations in progress, while 481 cases are yet to be investigated.