President Cyril Ramaphosa reviews members of the SANDF on parade at Loftus Versfeld Stadium during his inauguration on 25 May 2019
via SANDFCorpEvents/Twitter
There are some things in life that help me sleep easier, and one of those things is that we have a singularly incompetent South African National Defence Force.
Think about it. Half of our 26 fabulous Gripen fighter jets don't fly because of lack of funding. Ditto our frigates and submarines, which require a minimum of 12 000 hours at sea per year to train sufficient personnel to keep vessels in the operating cycle and operational. The Navy, however, only has budget for 6 000 hours at sea.
Or simply head over to Google and do an image search for "SANDF accident".
So when the Mail and Guardian reported that no SANDF members were willing to fly to Wuhan, China to evacuate South African civilians, I shrugged. It fits the pattern of incompetence.
The reason why I sleep easier is that communist regimes the world over have been able to impose their will by military might. Think North Korea, Venezuela, Zimbabwe.
Our lot are unlikely to go to war because they would go on strike for unsafe working conditions.
Let's raise our glasses in praise of brothers and sisters in uniform protecting our democracy through their ineptitude!
Oh, and keep an eye out for Tuesday, 10 March 2020, because 12 SANDF personnel accused of stealing rifles are meant to go on trial then.
