Dear Editor
Twenty officers, R28 million, zero accreditation, that is the SANDF’s Cuba plan in one line. The numbers don’t lie: R28 million now, after R1.7 billion in irregular spend before, and still the SANDF, with the Minister’s blessing, doubles down on Cuba.
The Democratic Alliance rejects the South African National Defence Force’s latest plan to waste R28 million on sending 20 officers to Cuba for unaccredited training. This is an ideological vanity project at taxpayer expense while accredited courses at home sit underutilised. Worse, the first year is reportedly being spent on learning Spanish, an unnecessary detour that delays real skills development.
The Auditor-General’s reports exposed the rot. Thusano (now rebranded as Kgala) is the SANDF’s Cuba cooperation pipeline for training and so-called ‘repairs’: irregularly contracted, overpriced, and continued under a new name. Sold as skills and maintenance, it in fact delivered unrecognised training, inflated tariffs, and R1.7 billion in irregular expenditure, a rebrand, not a reform.
- Cuban personnel were paid at nearly four times the local rate.
- Medical training in Cuba cost 146% more than equivalent South African programmes.
- Many Cuba-trained graduates had to redo training locally because their qualifications were not recognised.
Thusano was supposedly scrapped but has simply been rebranded as Project Kgala, now also under audit. This is not reform, it is recycling failure. No cost-benefit or needs analysis has ever justified Cuba over credible English-medium partners such as the UK, USA, India, or South Africa’s own colleges.
International exchanges can be valuable when they build interoperability and deliver recognised qualifications. The Minister confirms 298 SANDF members are currently training abroad in 13 countries. Many of these are English-medium and strategically aligned. Cuba stands out as the costly, non-accredited exception.
The DA demands the immediate suspension of the Cuban deployment and full disclosure of all Kgala contracts. Both the SANDF leadership and Minister Angie Motshekga must answer for this egregious waste. That money should be redirected to South Africa’s own academies and technical colleges, to build local skills, support local jobs, and strengthen the SANDF.
We will not allow ideological nostalgia for Cuba to cripple our defence force. The DA will continue fighting for a professional, well-resourced SANDF that puts soldiers and taxpayers first, not the ANC’s political debts.
Regards
Chris Hattingh MP
DA Spokesperson on Defence & Military Veterans