The South African Air Force (SAAF) has lost four pilots to Australia this year
a big loss for a service struggling to maintain staff and training levels.
The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) has also recruited nine other officers
with air combat, administrative and logistic al expertise.
In addition, the SAAF has lost to Australia two aircraft technicians, a
communications technician, and a clerk from its enlisted ranks .
The RAAF denies charges that it actively recruits personnel under its "lateral"
foreigner recruitment programme.
"An RAAF lateral recruiting team will not be visiting SA," says Capt Jonathan
Mead, Australian defence adviser for the African region .
"There has been no such visit in the past, and there are no plans for any visits
in the future.
"It must be stressed that first contact is always made by a foreign military
member wishing the join the RAAF.
"In most instances word of mouth and the website are the catalysts for the
approach."
It is unclear which country is the main destination for South African Defence
Force and air force personnel, but the departure of trained personnel is a huge
blow.
"There are squadrons where there are 20 aircraft and about
four or five pilots," says Len le Roux, head of the Institute of
Strategic Studies' Pretoria office, and a retired air force major-general .
"The South African Air Force is under a lot of pressure currently to maintain
pilots and engineers. In that situation, the loss of four people becomes
significant."
SA's armed forces have long complained about a lack of
funding *1 to maintain levels of training and retain staff.
In 2005, the air force alone lost more than 240 highly skilled aircraft
technicians, according to its 2005-06 annual report. It did not specify losses
in its 2006-07 report.
SAAF spokesman Capt Ntsiki Mantshongo declined to comment, saying the defence
department would respond next week .
The navy is suffering the same problem.
"The defence department is indeed concerned with regard to the loss of
skilled personnel," R-Adm Bernard Teuteberg, the chief director of maritime
strategy, says in a statement.
He says he does not know where navy personnel are going.
Air forces always struggle to hold onto pilots in peacetime, Le Roux says.
"Government salaries do not compare with those on the outside. A guy flying a
Boeing to England and back twice a week and getting coffee all the way there and
back gets the same as the chief of the air force."
The fact that the Australians are recruiting South Africans
shows they are having trouble hanging onto their own
pilots *2, Le Roux says.
With acknowledgements to Michael Bleby
and Business
Day.
*1The tragedy is that all this is
and was known stuff - from way back when.
Yet the Government decided to purchase equipment it didn't need and the more
expensive options than were available.
The SA Navy knew that it could not afford both new submarines and new frigates.
Indeed it knew that it could not afford frigates at all - that's why it went for
corvettes with a half-arsed combat suite.
Yet the government went and bought both new submarines and new frigates, but the
latter with a quarter-arsed combat suite at double the price - both from
Germany.
The frigates of course had to be the best the Meko 200AS, with stealth and
water-jet propulsion and both diesel engines and gas turbine engines.
For the South African Air Force Joe Modise and Chippy Shaik bent all the rules,
sorry broke all the rules, to get the BAe Hawk selected at nearly double the
price for 15% greater utility, utility that was not specified nor required by
the SAAF.
They also decided to buy 28 brand new 4th generation Gripen JAS39 jet fighters
in the same year that 2 Air Force Base Hoedspruit had taken 38 essentially new
Cheetah C third generation fighters into service.
Now they claim the SAAF and the SAN have got no money.
It's true - they have very little money for manning, training, fuel, training
ammunition or spares.
So much so when they break equipment, they cannot afford to have it repaired or
replaced, even if it costs just a few tens of thousands of Rands.
It's a skande.
*2This does not necessarily follow - they maybe expanding
their capability and attending to normal attrition.
At least they can get trained personnel at the drop of a hat and for no cost.
Unlike the RSA.
Where are we going to get the same, Zimbabwe, they also operate Hawks.