Briefing Paper

The 2014 South African Defense Review Rebuilding After Years of Abuse, Neglect and Decay

Cabinet approved the Defence Review in March 2014. The previous review with it’s 15 chapters include considerable unnecessary background material. However this is as much a manual to fix the SANDF as it is a path towards the future. The result is a mixture of matters related to internal administration, policy, strategy, military doctrine, discipline and human resources. , The review does present the costs of its preferred option but does not set out alternative force design options. This policy brief interprets a number of the review’s key conclusions and presents associated policy considerations, with a focus on the financial affordability of the expenditure targets.