The Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, 69-year-old Angie Motshekga has said that government officials should be given early retirement to cut costs.

Motshekga said this while she was giving a report on her department's financial standing in Parliament.

The minister added that defunding of the department has had a negative impact and has put it in a tough situation in many ways.

"We are looking at measures as to how we can compensate, because we just can't complain and keep on spending.

"There are measures government has put in place in terms of early retirement to make sure that we can release older staff, who are highly paid, and introduce a rejuvenating programme to be able to create space. It has worked in education," she said.

Motshekga went on to say that younger blood can revitalise the department.

"The underfunding has not only affected us in terms of HR, but it has also affected us in many areas, such as where we can't service our equipment. This means, for instance, in the air force, instead of flying maybe six planes, we have four working."

The minister added the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) is capable of defending the country.

"I have no doubt that while we may not have everything we need, we have enough capabilities to defend ourselves. The money that I always say we run short of, is not even to go fight outside, there's not even one mission that I got a report on that we did not have the resources we needed. Where we need it, is here at home."

In the Budget Speech that never was, Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana had planned to announce that the 2025 Budget would include a net increase of R173.3 billion in non-interest expenditure over three years, funded entirely by the new tax revenue.

One of the areas in which it would have been allocated would have been the ministry of defence. "Defence and correctional services: R9.4 billion," reads the scrapped Budget speech.

Additionally, Godongwana would have pushed the early retirement programme forward.

"An additional R11 billion is provisionally allocated over the next two fiscal years for the early retirement initiative, whose intention is to attract younger employees into the public service."

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