‘It’s about underfunding’: Motshekga warns as defence pay bill runs R3.3bn over

Cape Town – Defence and Military Veterans Minister Angie Motshekga has warned that the Department of Defence is facing a growing financial crisis, with employee compensation expected to result in a R3.3 billion over-expenditure this financial year.

Motshekga issued the warning in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on Wednesday, saying the department’s compensation shortfall could increase to R4 billion in 2027/28 and R4.6 billion in 2028/29 if no intervention is made.

According to IOL, the department had already overspent by about R3 billion on employee compensation in the previous financial year.

Motshekga said the department was considering measures including early retirement, voluntary exits and restricting recruitment to contain the growing personnel bill.

But she warned that cutting staff alone would not resolve the problem, which she attributed to years of inadequate funding.

“We’re not recruiting at the rate which we would have wished to recruit,” the report quoted Motshekga as saying.

She said the SANDF was currently recruiting about 5,000 people every two years, a rate she said was insufficient to meet the force’s requirements while ensuring younger personnel were brought in to replace an ageing workforce.

The minister said the department had repeatedly raised its funding concerns with National Treasury, Cabinet and Parliament.

“We don’t appropriate monies for ourselves. We live with what we get,” she said.

R57.6bn budget under pressure

The latest warning comes despite the Department of Defence receiving a R57.6 billion allocation for 2026/27.

In her 2026/27 Defence Budget Vote, Motshekga said R37.7 billion had been set as the ceiling for compensation of employees.

That means about two-thirds of the department’s total allocation is committed to salaries and related employee costs.

The budget also provides R2.5 billion for the South African Army, R2.7 billion for the Air Force, R1.9 billion for the Navy, R1.5 billion for Military Health Services, R4.5 billion for Logistics and R1.5 billion for Joint Operations.

Government has additionally earmarked R557 million for border safeguarding technology and vehicles, R427 million to maintain the Air Force’s fighter capability and R607 million for Navy repairs and maintenance.

Motshekga said the SANDF remained critical to South Africa’s security responsibilities, but warned that its ambitions needed to be matched by adequate resources.

“The SANDF remains essential to sovereignty, central to internal stability and critical to the Republic’s regional and global obligations,” she said in her budget speech.

The minister called for a funding trajectory that would allow government to rebuild military capabilities and stabilise operational financing.

Parliament flags funding constraints

The concerns are not limited to the minister.

The Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans said in May that the department was already being “hampered by serious funding constraints”.

The committee said future funding would need to be linked to greater policy certainty and called for the proposed “Journey of Greatness” defence policy to be accompanied by a costing model.

The financial pressure has also been highlighted by the Standing Committee on Appropriations.

In August, the committee raised concerns that the Defence Department was being given additional deployment responsibilities without receiving the necessary funding.

The committee said the department was facing spending pressures related to the compensation ceiling, military base maintenance and the deployment of 2,200 troops. It also said the department needed R823 million for Operation Prosper and had not received the money by July 31.

The committee’s concerns followed an earlier presentation in which the department indicated that salary costs were already running significantly above the approved ceiling.

According to The Citizen, the department spent about R55 billion on employee compensation in the previous financial year, around R3.6 billion above its salary allocation.

The department’s chief financial officer, Edem Abotsi, reportedly warned that the overspend could reach R4.1 billion in the following year if additional funding was not provided by National Treasury.

‘It has nothing to do with generals’

Motshekga also rejected suggestions that the financial crisis was primarily the result of excessive salaries among senior military officers.

“What has been brought to my attention, which I’m witness to, is that the resources allocated to the defence force don’t match up with what they’re supposed to be doing,” she said.

She pointed to the condition of military equipment and infrastructure, including aircraft and ships, as evidence of the consequences of inadequate funding.

“It has nothing to do with generals. It’s about underfunding,” Motshekga said.

The warning comes amid wider concerns about the declining state of South Africa’s defence capabilities.

DefenceWeb reported in May that MPs from several political parties had criticised the defence budget and raised concerns about the deteriorating condition of the SANDF.

DefenceWeb has also reported that defence spending is projected to decline to about 0.69% of GDP by 2028/29, despite government discussions about increasing defence spending towards 1.5% of GDP.

Motshekga has previously acknowledged the mismatch between the SANDF’s responsibilities and the resources available to it.

The department’s 2026/27 budget, she said, required government to make difficult choices between containing personnel costs and maintaining the military capabilities needed to fulfil its constitutional mandate.

The latest figures suggest that pressure will intensify unless additional funding is found or the department succeeds in bringing its compensation bill under control.

For now, Motshekga’s warning puts the Defence Department’s finances firmly back under the spotlight, with Parliament and National Treasury facing growing pressure to address a gap that is projected to widen by billions of rand over the next three years.