‘Sleep easy, SA – Motshekga says the skies are safe despite air force crisis

Angie Motshekga

Cape Town – Defence Minister Angie Motshekga has assured the National Council of Provinces that South African airspace is secure despite serious challenges facing the South African Air Force (SAAF), such as grounded aircraft and insufficient funding.

Responding to MPs’ concerns on Tuesday, she acknowledged the SAAF is “bleeding” but stressed it is not beyond repair, with efforts underway to maintain and repair aircraft and stop further decline.

“You can sleep peacefully; your skies are safe, and we’ll be able to do any obligations internally that we need to do for the safety of our country,” The Citizen quoted Motshekga as saying.

She also later told Newzroom Afrika during an interview that: “Our current needs as a country, our sea, our skies and our land, we are confident as a department that we will be able to defend our country and there is evidence to that… as we are even able to send peacekeeping forces – quite a number of them were there to assist in Mozambique, were there to assist in the DRC.

“We participate in a number of peacekeeping missions. We wouldn’t even be able to go there if we had zero capacity. So we are saying, yes, there challenges… but we could do more with more money.”

Criticism arose over the R415 million allocated to maintain VIP aircraft while operational defence fleets remain grounded.

Motshekga defended the spending, rejecting calls for President Cyril Ramaphosa to use commercial flights.

The department is working with Treasury and the Presidency to secure more funding and has prioritised repairing existing aircraft over costly new purchases, the minister said.

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