The Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans and the Portfolio Committee on Public Works and Infrastructure have recommended that a task team be established to tackle the disagreement between the Department of Defence and the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure over the maintenance of military infrastructure.
The departments appeared in a joint meeting of the two committees today, to brief members on the South African Defence National Force about building maintenance projects and the devolution of building maintenance to the Department of Defence.
The disagreements revolve around the Department of Defence’s dissatisfaction with the services offered by the DPWI on the management and maintenance of military facilities. Now the Department of Defence is seeking to take over the maintenance responsibilities from DPWI.
In its presentation to the committees, the Department of Defence said it the functions that must be devolved include municipal services; accommodation charges; emergency repairs; day to day maintenance; and the payment of rates and taxes, leases and projects. The committees heard that these functions were outsourced to DPWI in 1998 to aid rationalisation and downsizing.
Previous task teams from the two departments met several times between 2020 and 2022 and this resulted in devolvement of some of the functions. The DPWI is also accusing the Department of Defence of falling behind in the payment of accommodation charges. It asked for the committees’ intervention for accommodation charges to be increased and to reverse a 2021 decision relating to all projects in design and planning.
It further reported that expenditure on professional fees on projects in design has already been spent and that a decision not to move to the construction phase may result in fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
Committee members raised a concern about the decay of military infrastructure and warned that this is a security risk. The committee was also not fully convinced that the Department of Defence has the capacity to take over the maintenance responsibilities from Public Works. “It is embarrassing that the Department of Defence is unable to protect its own military bases. It must take responsibility for allowing invasions. I am not confident that they can take over these functions,” said Mr Carl Niehaus, a member of the Portfolio Committee on Defence.
He also alleged that invasion of military bases by homeless people was a result of corruption within the Department of Defence and that the disagreements on the maintenance of these facilities is a fight for tenders.
The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans, Mr Dakota Legoete, said the two departments must go back to work on the dissolution framework and get a legal opinion on the legal implications and if there will be any possible amendment to legislation. “Some of our military bases have been encroached on through land grabs. Most of our military bases are over 100 years old; they were started during the Union of South Africa in 1910 and are dilapidated, require refurbishment.
“One of the biggest concerns is that some of the bases house ammunition depots with explosives, artillery equipment and prime mission equipment and it is risky when people invade or erect residences next to military bases. We don’t want civilians to be exposed to military equipment or any other danger,” said Mr Legoete.
The committees have asked for a detailed report on what led to the Department of Defence to ask for devolution of responsibility and for the task team to hold weekly meetings until an agreement is reached.
Sakhile Mokoena
11 June 2025
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