Military Budget
South Africa's defense budget grew almost tenfold in nominal terms between 1975 and 1989, from R1 billion to R9.4 billion. In constant dollar value, however, the increase was modest--from US$3 billion per year in the early 1980s to US$3.43 billion per year in the last half of that decade, based on 1988 prices. Defense spending averaged 16.4 percent of government budgets in the 1980s; it ranged from a high of 22.7 percent in 1982 to 13.7 percent in 1987, but rose to 15.7 percent of government spending in 1989.
Although South Africa's defense spending was high in comparison with economic output in the 1980s, the "trend toward militarization" in that decade, which was noted by many observers in analyzing South Africa's apartheid-era spending, was not evident in global comparisons. Out of 144 countries surveyed by the United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency in 1989, South Africa ranked thirtieth in total military expenditures, forty-fourth in military spending as a percentage of gross national product, and sixty-third in military spending as a percentage of total government spending. South Africa also ranked forty-ninth in the size of its armed forces and 103d in the size of the armed forces in relation to population.
By the mid-1990s, defense spending had been reduced to less than 3 percent of gross domestic product , and less than 10 percent of total government spending. Military salaries consumed more than half of defense spending, in part the result of the military reorganization. Spending on armaments and equipment had declined, as a portion of defense spending, from 44 percent in the 1980s to 28 percent in 1994, according to newly appointed SANDF chief General George Meiring. Meiring and other defense officials in 1995 expressed concern about military preparedness, noting the reduced production and acquisition of armored vehicles, the decline in antiaircraft capability, the reduction of civil service positions from 144,000 to about 100,000, the closure of military bases, and the reduction in military training courses. Deputy Minister of Defence Ronnie Kasrils said in 1995 that the government's planned cuts in defense spending could also result in the loss of as many as 90,000 jobs in defense-related industries.
The budget for military intelligence in 1994 was R163 million, and of this, R37 million was allocated for clandestine military intelligence gathering, according to a senior military intelligence officer reporting to the Joint Committee on Defence in October 1994. Spending on clandestine military intelligence was about 1 percent of the total military budget, according to the 1994 report
In March 1999, the Minister of Defence approved, in principle, the creation of a staff establishment of 70 000 permanent and 17 000 review posts. Restructuring projects were completed in 2001 and only the Air Force and Human Resources (HR) Support Centre are still under review. A structural audit during 2001 revealed shortcom-ings with regard to the compliance of certain structures with the transformation and design principles, particularly the lack of the required organisational capacity necessary to enable the Secretary for Defence to fulfil his statutory obligations as Head of Department and Accounting Officer. To comply with the requirements of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) the DOD structure was revised and now provides for a Chief Financial Officer.
The Department of Defence had a budget of R 15 803 million for the 2001/02 financial year, and expects to receive R 16 835 million and R 17898 million in the next two years.
