Issues around allowances and other payments for SA National Defence Force (SANDF) personnel deployed continentally on the shortened Southern African Development Community (SADC) mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are no longer in play with “all deployed members paid the full amount due to them”.
These words come from a presentation to the Joint Standing Committee on Defence (JSCD) by Edem Abotsi, Department of Defence (DoD) Acting Chief Financial Officer (ACFO).
He took to the floor during last Friday’s JSCD meeting to set the record straight in the light of media reporting and public statements to the effect South African soldiers were not receiving what was all due to them for the SAMIDRC (SADC Mission in the DRC) continental peacekeeping mission. Allegations were refuted by the ACFO that R813 million in allowances (including for deprivation, danger and standby) did not find their way into soldiers’ personal bank accounts.
His presentation notes National Treasury allocated R2.1 billion for the SAMIDRC mission, which includes the R813 million for allowances to be paid to deployed soldiers. “This funding allocation amount for the deployment was only received in October 2024, 10 months after deployment commenced, and after invoking Section 16 of the PFMA [Public Finance Management Act] and not at the beginning of the deployment.”
A breakdown of the R813 million has R694 million allocated for the deprivation allowance, R74 million for the standby allowance, and R45 million for the danger allowance.
Allowance details, as per the Abotsi presentation, are standard danger allowance of R608.53 per 31-day month, special danger allowance of R911.09 per month, standby allowance of R2 503.25, deprivation allowance of R23 605.88 and what is termed an international obligation standard danger allowance (IODSDA) of R8 324.43 per month. The total allowance package amounts to R35 953.18 per soldier per month.
Soldiers attached to the SADC mission also received what the Abotsi presentation has as an “optional sustainment allowance”. This is given as $5 (about R91 when averaging the 2024 US dollar/Rand exchange rate). This saw a further $140 (about R2 650) going into the accounts per month as a cash advance from the IODSA allowance and was deducted from accounts in the next month’s IODSA payments. Deductions were calculated at then ruling exchange rates.
Nicholas Gotsell, Democratic Alliance (DA) National Council of Provinces (NCOP) Member of Parliament (MP), a consistent questioner of Minister Angie Motshekga on the continental allowances issue, told DefenceWeb, the Abotsi presentation “helped” but he wasn’t ruling out further Parliamentary questions.
Gotsell said the use of different currencies could be “confusing” adding this would go further. Sample DoD salary advice sheets in the presentation use ZAR. “With exchange rates continuously changing there will be different amounts allocated to, for example, the deprivation and danger allowances and this should be explained properly,” he said wanting to know how well this was done during mission readiness training at the De Brug mobilisation centre.
The SANDF indicated that it is prepared to conduct further verification should any service members believe that they have not received their payments.
