Daily Maverick When a president usually so focused on following correct processes goes astray like this, it signifies something is potentially very, very wrong. And when the military decides to diss accountability to Parliament – it is time to raise the alarm.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s misdirection of the constitutionally required SANDF deployment letter for SA’s largest-ever military mobilisation to a parliamentary committee and not Parliament’s leadership, raises questions. As does Wednesday’s securocrat conduct by top defence generals before the Joint Standing Committee on Defence.
The charitable explanation for it would be the Presidency made a mistake sending the deployment authorisation letter required in terms of Section 2o1(2) of the Constitution to the co-chairpersons of the Joint Standing Committee on Defence.
But the president got it right, absolutely right, on scores of previous occasions when letters were sent to Parliament’s presiding officers – be that various State of the Nation Addresses, the deployment of soldiers to gang-ridden Cape Flats in July 2019 and, most recently, the deployment of 2,820 soldiers from 23 March as part of the Covid-19 lockdown, in a letter that was sent to Parliament’s presiding officers two days later.
Another explanation exists: the Presidency is bypassing traditional and established correct channels of cooperation between the executive and legislative spheres of state.
But when a president usually so focused on following correct processes goes astray like this, it signifies something is potentially very, very wrong.
In South Africa’s constitutional democracy, the head of the executive, the president, writes to the leaders of the legislative sphere, Parliament’s presiding officers.
The speaker of the National Assembly and the chairperson of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) then formally refer such communication to the defence committee – and the presidential letters are published in the Announcements, Tablings and Committee Reports (ATC), or the record of Parliament’s work.
Then the Joint Standing Committee on Defence meets to discuss and deliberate on the deployment authorisation to consider whether or not to support it. The committee’s decision goes to the Houses for approval.
Tedious? Maybe. But this process is a crucial part of the checks and balances, and imperative for cooperative governance and accountability in South Africa’s constitutional democracy.
Little of this happened with Ramaphosa’s letter dated 21 April 2020.
That one-pager says the president decided “to employ (sic) an additional 73,180 members of the SANDF”, from the regular force, auxiliaries and reservists, until 26 June 2020 at a cost of R4.59-billion because “(t)he outbreak of Covid-19 continues to increase with reported cases across the Republic of South Africa”.
As military researchers African Defence Review say, it is SA’s biggest-ever SANDF deployment, at least on paper, although it remains to be seen how it will unfold in practice.
The timeline of this constitutionally required presidential letter is important.
That letter was sent to the chairpersons of the Joint Standing Committee on Defence the same day it was written, 21 April. Co-chairperson Cyril Xaba is on public record saying he distributed the letter to committee members.
By 8.03pm that letter was tweeted by DA interim leader John Steenhuisen, who added: “I have requested the presidency to urgently confirm this information”.
At 11pm, according to the posting time-stamp on Parliament’s website, the defence committee announced it was holding a meeting the next day, Wednesday 22 April, “to consider the letter from the President on the Employment of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF)” alongside other Covid-19 lockdown related matters and a report back by the Military Ombud on complaints against soldiers.
At noon on Wednesday, Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and her deputy were ready to brief parliamentarians together with SANDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Lindile Yam, SANDF Chief of Joint Operations Lieutenant-General Rudzani Maphwanya and Defence Secretary Sam Gulube.
Over the next three hours, the Joint Standing Committee on Defence proceeded to consider – and ultimately approve – this presidential Covid-19 lockdown deployment letter, the letter dated 25 March authorising the first such deployment, and letters for the repatriation of South Africans form the coronavirus epicentre of Wuhan and extending an existing SANDF deployment.
