Defence spending 'jusitfied'

2007-11-20 19:21

Cape Town - Finance Minister Trevor Manuel has dismissed Democratic Alliance allegations that South Africa is spending too much on too sophisticated defence weaponry.

Responding to the DA's Eddie Trent in the National Assembly on Tuesday, Manuel said the Constitution demanded a defence force be established and gave no option on this.

"So when the honourable Trent asks the questions that he does, or makes the statements that he does, it needs to happen against this backdrop.

"Because once the Constitution compels you to have a defence force, then you can't have unsophisticated weapons.

"It's ludicrous, because on the larger scale of things, we aren't investing as heavily as almost every other member of the United Nations in our defence capability," he said.

SA was one of a handful of countries in the world that spent less than two percent of GDP on its defence capability, and one of four countries in the world spending more on the provision of water than on defence.

"So it can't be a question of priorities. Nor can it be a question about the fact that the weapons we are investing in are too sophisticated," Manuel said.

Earlier, Trent said the DA had recently learnt that €27.8m (about R276m) was paid for 17 missiles for the four valour class frigates - each costing about R16m.

In addition, the SA National Defence Force had spent about R999m on the first phase of a missile defence system that could escalate into many more billions.

"Please tell us how you can justify spending more and more taxpayers money on sophisticated weaponry that, in any event, we are unable to service and operate in many cases," Trent said.

- SAPA