I have been pushing this one sentiment for a long time now and yet it seems not to resonate with our politicians. Here I go again: we are not exceptional.
And until we accept this very simple fact, we must entertain the idea that because we are part of Brics, we are endorsing moving away from the US dollar. Moreover, we support Russia in their war against Nato, we support Iran because of the illegal war of aggression against them. We feel morally and principally obligated to take Israel to the International Court of Justice to try and stop the genocide against the Palestinian people. For all these reasons we have become a target (enemy) of the US and Israel and there will be consequences.
So, if you agree with me on these obvious points then you must also agree that we must prepare ourselves for an imminent attack. This attack could and would take the form of either a technological attack on our ICT infrastructure, not only military tech but all ICT infrastructure. Our ports, both airports and harbours, government ICT infrastructure, Home Affairs, Treasury, the Reserve Bank and others would be at risk. This would cause chaos and take us back to the Stone Age, quite literally folks.
Then there’s the economic attack: trade restrictions, tariffs and sanctioning our banks, targeting certain industries and putting pressure on our currency. Lastly, the political attack, which is already underway. Funding of all opposition parties against the ANC, creating social disorder such as immigration sentiments, crime and corruption and non-existing white genocide campaigns. And before you again say that I’m cuckoo, I remind you we are not exceptional.
Now, having said all that, what are we supposed to do about it?
For a start, we need to give our SANDF the R9-billion it needs to get operationally ready. This, however, does not mean being combat-ready. We need to increase our spend on national defence. Our national security requires this more than ever in the current epoch we find ourselves in.
The current state of our armed forces should be of serious concern for us all. We have three submarines, of which two are permanently in dry docks. We are told they are in for maintenance and repairs, but it seems there’s no money to keep them in the water.
This says nothing of our frigates, that seem permanently parked in the naval dockyard in Simon’s Town.
Our air-force men and women have not seen flying time in years. Yes, years.
The air-force seem not to be able to buy any jet fuel, nor maintain its expensive equipment. Of the Oryx helicopters we have, I venture to say only three are operational for the customary fly-by during the opening of Parliament or the inauguration of the President. If the air force has five operational “Rooivalk” attack helicopters, it would be too many.
As for our ground troops (army), the less I say the better.
Economic instruments of power are where the new global war objectives lie. These include fights over markets, technological leadership, industrial might, control over energy sources, control over physical transport corridors, banking systems, payment systems, and currencies we trade in. This is where the new war effort will reside.
So, are we ready? No. If there are lessons to learn from the Iran war, we must invest much more heavily in drone technology and manufacturing. We need underground missile and drone cities like they have in Iran. I know it’s not a popular view, but I argue that we need to position ourselves with our current nuclear technology in such a way that if required, we should only be a year away from regaining a nuclear weapon. This, ultimately, for a defensive and deterrence posture and not to necessarily bomb anyone.
We need a better understanding of hybrid warfare and asymmetric warfare. Given our coastline, it’s a no brainer that we must invest large amounts of money in our navy, especially submarines. We cannot have only three submarines, of which two are constantly on the dry dock. It’s embarrassing. We must reimagine our arms industry.
Armscor and Denel must be supported unequivocally.
We also need to send a serious number of our men and women for training to foreign allies on all these systems and equipment. We must modernise and professionalise our military and our defence industry urgently. So, either we seriously step up our military spending or we risk becoming a serious and easy target.
• Dr Van Heerden is a senior research fellow at the Centre for African Diplomacy and Leadership at UJ
- I have been pushing this one sentiment for a long time now and yet it seems not to resonate with our politicians.
- Here I go again: we are not exceptional.
- And until we accept this very simple fact, we must entertain the idea that because we are part of Brics, we are endorsing moving away from the US dollar.
- Moreover, we support Russia in their war against Nato, we support Iran because of the illegal war of aggression against them.
- We feel morally and principally obligated to take Israel to the International Court of Justice to try and stop the genocide against the Palestinian people.
