Briefing Paper

Draft South African Defence Review 2012 The Dichotomy Between Ambition and Reality

“This policy brief provides an analysis of
the draft South African Defence Review 2012
released for public comment on 12 April 2012.
It finds that this document does not meet
the requirements of a comprehensive defence
policy and in particular does not provide
guidance on the resolution of the impasse
between policy and funding in which the
South African National Defence Force (SANDF)
finds itself. The draft pronounces on a
long-­term vision for the capabilities of
the SANDF without any clear reasoning on
how it got there, and fails to address the
SANDF’s short-­ to medium-­term force development and employment priorities. It
also fails to mainstream gender as a matter
of high priority for the SANDF. The policy
brief ends with recommendations about how
these shortcomings should be corrected.”