The Democratic Alliance has called on Minister of Defence Angie Motshekga and the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to appear before Parliament to provide a full breakdown of the R823 million set aside for an imminent military deployment.

The party says urgent clarity is needed on how the amount was calculated and what safeguards are in place to prevent waste or corruption.

DA NCOP member on Security and Justice Nicholas Gotsell highlighted the broader concerns around Defence spending, pointing to recent reports of lavish Armed Forces Day celebrations, including subsistence and travel payments of up to R70 000 per individual, alongside ongoing spending on golf days and social events.

He said these reports “demonstrate precisely why Parliament cannot take the Department of Defence’s financial assurances at face value.”

Gotsell added that this was not an isolated incident. “The Department has failed to obtain a clean audit from the Auditor-General for years, and 34% of current SIU and Hawks investigations within the security cluster relate to the Department of Defence and Military Veterans, to the tune of R2.5 billion.

''Against this backdrop, reckless or poorly controlled spending is not merely embarrassing – it is a direct risk to operational readiness and public trust.”

The DA raised these concerns during a recent meeting of the Joint Standing Committee on Defence, where Minister Motshekga was present for an earlier agenda item but was excused when the Committee turned to the critical matter of the President’s employment letters authorising the SANDF deployment.

Gotsell described this as the second ANC Minister to snub the committee to provide answers to urgent deployment questions.

Gotsell said the party objected to Motshekga’s departure, particularly given the many unanswered questions regarding the timeline, planning, command and control structures, and, most importantly, the very specific figure of R823 153 960 attached to the deployment.

“This is a figure that was already presented to Parliament as early as 6 March, yet to date no detailed breakdown has been provided to justify how this amount was calculated or how it will be spent,” he said.

He also referred to the Sunday revelations about excessive spending on Armed Forces Day, noting that they “illustrate how easily public funds can be mismanaged when Ministers continuously fail to appear before Parliament or answer oversight questions.”

The DA has formally requested that Minister Motshekga and the SANDF appear before the joint meeting of the Joint Standing Committee on Defence and the Portfolio Committee on Police on Friday, 27 March, to provide a full and proper breakdown of the deployment cost.

“There can be no price tag on people’s lives, but there must always be accountability for how public money is spent – especially when hundreds of millions of rand are involved and when the same Department has repeatedly failed to meet basic standards of financial governance.

''Friday’s meeting must provide answers to MPs and the people waiting urgently for this deployment,'' said Gotsell.

*This article was first published by IOL News