Defence minister says Zuma jet won't cost billions
The Defence and Military Veterans Minister, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, said South Africans need to decide whether it wants its defence force to shut up shop.
Mapisa-Nqakula addressed the media ahead of her department's budget debate in Parliament on Wednesday afternoon.
The deparment has a budget of R47 billion, or about 1% of the GDP. This was expected to decline even further.
She stressed the importance of a country investing in its defence force.
"For me, this budget is a watershed budget. This country either decides whether it needs the South African National Defence Force (SANDF)...we've reached a point as the SANDF where we feel strongly that we cannot continue at the rate at which we are right now," she said.
Mapisa- Nqakula confirmed that government will buy a new presidential jet, but strongly denied that it would cost the taxpayer billions of rand.
"Somebody just woke one day and decided that the defence force is going to spend R4 billion at a time when the economy is not doing very well and of course any South African would be up in arms."
Edited by Marius van der Walt