Feast for army top brass, famine for troops

Even prisoners get three nourishing meals a day, soldiers patrolling South Africa’s borders complain of being hungry and sick, with severe food shortages and no access to medicine.

Several of them have told the Sunday Times that the tents they sleep in are torn and decaying and that they are issued with broken webbing kit. They say there is no money to service military vehicles, which often stand idle for lack of fuel.

Against this alarming backdrop, the top brass is about to blow R370m on a single, symbolic event in Limpopo this month: Armed Forces Day.

Troops from KwaZulu-Natal who are patrolling the borders of Mozambique, eSwatini and Lesotho as part of Operation Corona say they get just two meals a day, usually pilchards, scrambled eggs, pap or rice. They receive no fresh meat, vegetables or fruit. Tinned rations are scarce and running out at an alarming rate, they say.

While the SANDF has dismissed the complaints as “isolated” and insists adequate funding is available for rations for all troops in the field, the South African Defence Union (Sandu) says the challenges are part of “a broader, systemic degradation of the SANDF’s sustainment capability”.

Soldiers say they are conducting dangerous operations in severe weather, but they have to make do with broken equipment and tents that are more than 20 years old. Sick bays have no medication so soldiers buy their own. They are on patrol in remote areas for months on end with no ambulance service available, which means any minor illness or injury can become a tragedy.

What is worse, they are now providing food for us just twice a day. It’s breakfast, then lunch, which is pap and scrambled eggs, or pilchard sometimes

—  Soldier on border patrol duty

“We are suffering a lot, we are struggling to do rotations because we have no diesel and we have to cough up money from our own pockets to service state vehicles,“ one soldier told the Sunday Times on condition of anonymity.

”What is worse, they are now providing food for us just twice a day. It’s breakfast, then lunch, which is pap and scrambled eggs, or pilchard sometimes.”

The soldiers are divided in three platoons of about 30 men each. While on patrol duty, a platoon spends four weeks at a time in the bush before rotating back to base.

“In the bush there is no time to cook, so the ration packs are necessary for us to survive, but there is a shortage and we don’t know why,” a second soldier said.

“In the bush we are given 1kg of mealie meal, one tin, and we have to buy more food for ourselves. So you spend four weeks in the bush with no rest, and you are there 24/7, and you are sent there with no ambulance in case you are sick. But the worst part for us is that even at the base there is no medicine in the sick bay.”

A senior officer told the Sunday Times that the situation in KwaZulu-Natal was the worst in the country — due in part to a dysfunctional tender system in the province — with troops based in Bloemfontein being treated the best.

“Soldiers [in KwaZulu-Natal] buy themselves boots, which cost about R1,500, refill diesel and service vehicles. Between 1994 and 1999 we had our stores and everything was there: boots, ammunition and diesel. Now everything must go out on tender.”

Sandu national secretary Pikkie Greeff said the union had learnt this week of “serious logistical and wellbeing challenges affecting members deployed under Operation Corona”, and believed the crisis was not limited to KwaZulu-Natal forces.

There were problems in Operation Corona with food supply, equipment serviceability, medical support, accommodation and transport, “and even something as simple as ablution facilities”.

“From the union’s engagements across multiple provinces, it is clear these challenges are not isolated incidents but part of a broader, systemic degradation of the SANDF’s sustainment capability. Members are increasingly being expected to execute demanding operational tasks with dangerously diminishing levels of logistical support.”

Greeff said basic military standards required that soldiers on border operations should receive three nutritionally balanced meals a day “at the very least”. There should be regular deliveries of fresh rations, “serviceable personal and mission equipment, reliable medical support including access to medication and emergency evacuation, safe and habitable accommodation and properly maintained vehicles and logistical support”.

“Ultimately, what South Africa is witnessing is the inevitable consequence of a defence budget that is far below what is required to sustain a professional, combat-ready deployable force. One cannot continuously expand tasking while hollowing out the institution that must execute it.”

However SANDF spokesperson Siphiwe Dlamini said enough money was available for rations for troops in all deployment areas.

“In the isolated case of the KwaZulu-Natal deployment area, the department has been having a challenge of suppliers not making government order deliveries on time. As a contingency, the SANDF has supplemented this shortfall with composite food packages [ration packs],” said Dlamini.

He said the SANDF was in the process of procuring new tents, and comprehensive medical support was available. “There are four military medical facilities within the area of deployment that provide specialised medical support when needed. If members purchase their own medication, it will be out of their own free will. There is also a service level agreement between SANDF and local clinics and hospitals,” said Dlamini.

Stephen Weir, group chair of Rationtech, a company that supplies ration packs for armies in Africa and Europe, said soldiers should ideally have a nutritionally balanced diet.

“If they are getting pap and scrambled eggs ... From a nutritional point of view that is not ideal. They should have carbohydrates, proteins and various other things. And if they were to give them a ration pack, they would get a very good range of carbohydrates, fats and what have you,” he said.

These soldiers are seemingly worse off than convicts in South African prisons who have three meals a day including meat such as beef, pork, chicken, fish, as well as other nutrients.

Troops along the Limpopo border told the Sunday Times they too were struggling with food. “We are eating mostly tinned stuff and some ration packs, but these are not lasting us,” said one soldier.

Soldiers deployed as part of Operation Corona said they received a monthly allowance of R10,000, while soldiers on guard duty at the combat training centre in Lohatla in the Northern Cape received R18,000.

“It doesn’t make sense why we are paid so little when we are risking our lives and people who are just guarding are getting paid more. This is unfair,” said one soldier.

Greeff said Sandu had long held the view that there were unjustifiable disparities in pay.

“Soldiers conducting border safeguarding operations face significant danger and hardship and should be compensated on a parity basis with other high-risk operational deployments. In cases where they are not adequately paid, it represents a deviation from policy,” he said.

Operation Corona was launched in 2009 after the government decided to return border control responsibilities to the SANDF. It has reported major successes against illegal immigrants and criminals. Contraband worth R182m was confiscated, along with stolen vehicles, in financial 2025.

The defence department’s 2025/26 performance plan reveals major financial shortfalls, including 51.4% for air defence, 61.7% for maritime capabilities and 52% for land operations.

The SANDF budget for the year was nominally set at R55.94bn, up 0.78% from the previous year. The increase is significantly below the inflation rate of 3.6%. Cuts in the defence budget over the years have raised the concern of MPs, who fear they threaten the SANDF’s ability to protect the sovereignty of the country.

Cosatu last month urged the government to halt “the mind-boggling planned R372m budget” for Armed Forces Day.

“This is a grotesque waste of funds which can be better utilised to address the many pressing needs of the SANDF. Blowing R372m on a one-day parade will take wasteful expenditure to new lows for the SANDF and the nation,” the labour federation said.

“This tone-deaf waste of scarce resources is an insult to the thousands of members of the SANDF who are struggling under some of the most extreme circumstances due to budget cuts and mismanagement.”