Durban - The South African National Defence Force has opened a chain of bakeries to help feed soldiers and bring in income as it battles a wave of budget cuts.
Two weeks ago, the SANDF opened its fifth bakery in the Western Cape.
This bakery is expected to provide food for soldiers and staff in Cape Town.
According to media reports, the Department of Defence hopes to reduce the SANDF's human strength to 73 000 as well as reduce the SA Reserve Force's man-days to save costs.
The SANDF is expected to save around R1.1 billion in the 2022/23 financial year.
However, speaking to News24, experts said this would weaken the SANDF.
African Defence Review director, Darren Olivier, said the cuts would have a negative effect on the SANDF's capabilities, which include its ability to conduct effective border patrols.
SANDF acting corporate communications officer, Captain Desiree Boipelo Kolokoto, said the Maqoma Bakery employs spouses and dependants of Regular Force and Reserve Force members, as well as Military Veterans.
She said it also helped to create employment to those living with disabilities and added value to the lives of employees.
“Army Support Base Western Cape plans to collaborate with the Department of Correctional Services and the South African Police Services to encourage synergy, kill the silos approach in order to fight against a negative impact of the budget and create self-sustainment in our various departments,” she said.
Meanwhile, the DA has called for a probe into the establishment of the bakeries.
"While the DA acknowledges the fact that the cash-strapped SANDF is confronted with a number of operational challenges, the opening of bakeries is not the solution. These bakeries fall outside of the defence force’s mandate and has potentially opened SANDF up to irregular and wasteful expenditure of its already limited funds," said DA MP, Kobus Marais.
He said in order to address its budgetary contracts, SANDF needed to be reformed and repositioned to address the modern-day challenges that South Africa faces, and that building a chain of bakeries would do little to achieve that goal.
IOL