In her address to the National Assembly on Tuesday, introducing the debate for her 2021 budget vote, Defence and Military Veterans Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula warned the assembled parliamentarians that defence cuts were endangering the country’s defence industry. The State-owned defence industrial group Denel was in particular danger. “If we are honest with ourselves, we now face the reality that if we do not intervene in a decisive manner, we will lose our State-owned defence industrial base and the ability to repair, maintain and overhaul most of our defence systems,” she highlighted. “This not only compromises our ability to maintain our current equipment in service, but also fundamentally impacts our longer-term ability to remain relevant and ready to conduct effective operations in the future. Should this happen, we may well find ourselves reliant on foreign powers for our main equipment and this will come at great strategic expense.”
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