The SANDF Has Been Captured And Looted By Its Own Top Command

Last week, on Wednesday, May 27, 2026, I sat in the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans as the Auditor-General of South Africa laid bare the criminal capture of the Department of Defence and Military Veterans. What followed from the South African National Defence Force was not accountability, but a disgraceful display of evasion, denialism, and contempt for Parliament.

I posted the full verbatim transcription and audio of my interventions in that meeting on my X account. Every South African should listen to it. The evidence speaks for itself. All citizens who still believe that the South African National Defence Force must defend the Republic rather than serve as a feeding trough for the corrupt will share the outrage that these revelations provoked.

The AGSA’s high-level update on prior-year audit findings, including the catastrophic insights into the submitted asset register, together with the DOD’s so-called feedback on asset management, Projects Kgala and Thusano, and irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure matters, confirm what the Economic Freedom Fighters have warned for years: the SANDF is being systematically looted from within. Most of the top commanding officers of the SANDF are guilty of gross mismanagement and corruption. Sadly, most of them are no longer soldiers — they are shameless looters. They have abandoned their oath to defend the Republic and the people of South Africa. Instead, they have become active participants in the looting of the very institution they swore to protect.

Billions meant for operational readiness, maintenance, soldier welfare, and national defence have been plundered through non-compliant deals, phantom assets, zero accountability, and a culture of total impunity. These so-called generals and admirals have turned the SANDF — built on the blood of Umkhonto we Sizwe cadres — into a patronage machine for tenderpreneurship, cadre deployment, and grand corruption. National security is actively compromised while these shameless looters enrich themselves and their networks.

The closing balance of irregular expenditure stands at approximately 16.4 billion across 885 cases as at February 28, 2026, including 10.13 billion incurred by exceeding the compensation of employees budget ceiling. Fruitless and wasteful expenditure remains at R492.6 million under investigation, while unauthorised expenditure was confirmed at R8.97 billion in the 2024/25 Annual Report. The status of key irregular expenditure cases reads like a roll-call of shame. Project Thusano alone accounts for R1,666,129,385 in procurement conducted without any adherence to South African legislation, and as at March 2026 no investigation has been instituted — four full years of documented illegality met with absolute silence from the top command.

Other massive cases from 2020-2021, running into hundreds of millions each, saw forensic investigations completed years ago, reports submitted for consequence management, yet no disciplinary steps and no recoveries. Boards of Inquiry mysteriously stalled over conveniently missing procurement files. The SIU’s work on one case produced thirty-three prosecutorial referrals and a preservation order, but disciplinary progress remains zero.

The material irregularities tell the same story: inventory and asset contracts awarded contrary to highest points with remedial action ignored since 2021; payments for unoccupied office buildings causing direct financial loss; unfair fuel awards; non-use of critical medical equipment at 2 Military Hospital, and more than twenty years of tender and construction mismanagement, turned the once proud 1 Military Hospital into a disastrous construction shambles with no end in sight. Referrals to the SIU, Public Protector, and DPCI have produced nothing but endless “ongoing investigations.” Then there is the asset register itself — a national disgrace. There is an R3.98 billion unexplained difference between the interim asset register submitted in January 2026 and the audited financial statements for the year ended March 31, 2025.

Management offers only a vague promise of final verification that is unverifiable. Unverified assets are led by the Logistics Division at 41% and the Corporate Staff Division at 21% — mostly specialised military assets. The department could not even indicate where the items are located. Unrecorded assets dominate in the SA Army and SAMHS. This is textbook concealment of theft and duplication, enabling years of repeated audit qualifications, all enabled and protected by the shameless looters at the top command.

As I told the Committee that day, the evidence is lying in front of us in the AGSA report itself. Billions meant for SANDF operational readiness, maintenance, and soldiers’ welfare have been plundered through non-compliant deals, phantom assets, and zero accountability. The generals and admirals who preside over this have turned the SANDF into a patronage machine for personal enrichment. This is not mere governance weakness. It is organised economic sabotage at the heart of our defence establishment.

The DoD’s response to the AGSA report was an insult to every soldier, every taxpayer, and every member of parliament. It claimed substantive progress since the January 2026 Status of Records Review while offering zero evidence, no names of officials held accountable, no binding timelines, and not a single rand recovered beyond token cases. On asset management they blamed ARMSCOR systems not being integrated with DOD systems, admitted that continuous stock-takes and verification certificates are still being consolidated, and cited budgetary constraints for unserviceable assets. Weapons verification supposedly shows considerable progress. By the time the AGSA concludes its audit, everything will be verified. This directly contradicts the AGSA’s own findings of massive unverified and unrecorded specialised military assets. Budget excuses are obscene when irregular foreign procurements continue unabated.

On Project Kgala and Project Thusano they offered post-hoc market analysis, cost-benefit analysis, and delegation of authority as justification for Government-to-Government deals with Cuba. Valuation and duplication issues are work in progress with a target of the end of the current financial year. They admit non-compliance, but promise future reviews. This is classic denialism from shameless looters. A March 2026 legal opinion from the Chief State Law Advisor declared the Kgala contract invalid, yet the DOD continues it, with contradictory parliamentary replies that raise serious questions of consistency. As I stated in the Committee, the presentation was evasive, post-facto lies, and zero accountability from these very shameless looters — denialism disguised in military jargon. They come to Parliament claiming substantive progress while offering zero evidence, no names, no timelines with teeth, and not a rand recovered. It is deliberately designed to waste our time and shield the top commanding officers guilty of gross mismanagement and corruption.

The EFF also picked up on the Auditor General’s emphasis on accountability and the slow handoff to the SIU and Hawks. I reminded the committee that the EFF is on record supporting strong relations with Cuba, but warned that the Department of Defense shoots itself in the foot with regards to its relationships with Cuba by ignoring AGSA findings on Thusano and Kgala.

The acting chair that was undemocratically imposed by the ANC for the particular sitting  of the Portfolio Committee, Mr. Tshilidzi Munyai, was trying every trick in the book to prevent the dirty linen of the ANC, and the Government of National Unity (GNU), from coming out. He interrupted me multiple times demanding so-called “evidence”. Yet the AGSA report itself is the most damning evidence. I have submitted detailed letters and questions for written and oral reply — including on Project Hotel as recently as May 22 2026 — only to receive unsatisfactory replies from the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Ms. Angie Motshekga, that obfuscate and kick the can down the road. On behalf of the EFF I responded plainly that we have made many presentations and detailed letters to this Committee, and the Department of Defence (DOD) repeatedly fails to come back on those issues.

This rot is not isolated. The Parliamentary Research Unit paper correctly links failures across Projects Thusano, Kgala, Hotel, and Hoefyster. Project Hotel has seen repeated delays and fund reprioritisation. The Isandlwana Frigate refurbishment is mired in corrupt delays and escalation costs. The EFF’s formal letter to the Chairs of the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans and the Joint Standing Committee on Defence — demanding a joint meeting with the Portfolio Committee on Finance and SCOPA to probe the theft and looting at the South African Army Foundation — remains unaddressed. Parliament’s inaction enables the shameless looters.

From the perspective of the Economic Freedom Fighters, the Department of Defence and Military Veterans is among the most captured departments in this Government of National Unity. Most of the top commanding officers of the SANDF are guilty of gross mismanagement and corruption. Most of them, sadly, are no longer soldiers. This report, their conduct, and their failure to account for billions show that they have become shameless looters. The SANDF was built on the blood of revolutionaries. It cannot be allowed to rot under a cabal of looters. The Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans must immediately convene the joint inquiry the EFF has demanded, with SCOPA, Finance, and the Joint Standing Committee. The top command must face suspension, full forensic audits of all projects including Hotel, Hoefyster, Isandlwana, Kgala and Thusano, and the SA Army Foundation, personal liability proceedings, contract terminations, blacklisting, and referrals to the Public Protector and Ethics Committee. We need an independent Defence Inspectorate, the scrapping of cadre deployment in procurement, and ring-fencing of the Special Defence Account.

The EFF will continue to place detailed information before the committee and the public. The fight for accountability is not optional, it is our revolutionary duty. The people of South Africa deserve a defence force that defends them, not one that loots them. The SANDF is not the personal piggy bank of the senior command to enrich themselves.. The shameless looters must go.

A luta continua!

* Ambassador Carl Niehaus is an EFF Member of Parliament and Permanent Representative for the EFF on the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans.

** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.