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Department of Defence (South Africa)

Department of the South African government From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Department of Defence is a department of the South African government. It oversees the South African National Defence Force, the armed forces responsible for defending South Africa.

Formed1912
TypeDepartment
Headquarters
  • Armscor Building, Erasmuskloof, Pretoria
  • 25.813°S 28.260°E / -25.813; 28.260
Quick facts Formed, Type ...
Department of Defence
List
  • 10 other official names:
  • Departement van Verdediging (Afrikaans)
  • umNyango wezokuVikela (Southern Ndebele)
  • iSebe lezoKhuseleko (Xhosa)
  • uMnyango Wezokuvikela (Zulu)
  • Litiko Letekuvikela (Swazi)
  • Kgoro ya Tšhireletšo (Northern Sotho)
  • Lefapha la Tshireletso (Sotho)
  • Lefapha la Tshireletso (Tswana)
  • Ndzawulo ya Vusirheleri (Tsonga)
  • Muhasho wa Vhupileli (Venda)
Department overview
Formed1912
TypeDepartment
JurisdictionGovernment of South Africa
Headquarters
  • Armscor Building, Erasmuskloof, Pretoria
  • 25.813°S 28.260°E / -25.813; 28.260
Employees79 045
Annual budgetR 57.61 billion (2026/27)[1]
Minister responsible
Deputy Minister responsible
Department executive
  • Gladys Sonto Kudjoe, Secretary for Defence
Child agencies
  • Defence Force Service Commission
  • Armscor
  • Castle Control Board
Key document
  • Defence Act, 2002
Websitewww.dod.mil.za
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As of June 2024 the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans is Angie Motshekga.[2]

Reported Severe Underfunding

Despite having highly trained elite units like the South African Special Forces (Recces), the SANDF faces steep challenges. Severe budgetary constraints have limited its ability to maintain advanced hardware (such as Gripen fighter jets and submarines) and have hampered critical modernization strategies. This has also been reported in the Department of Defence due to alleged corruption and underfunding

2023 Alleged Hack

In August 2023, a Russian Hacker Group named “Snatch” claimed to steal 200 TB of classified information, contracts, and personal identity information. They allegedly posted a 1.6TB Compressed Archive on the dark web.[3][4] The Department of Defence claimed that it was “fake news” and no data leak occurred.[5]

Snatch claimed it specifically chose the week of the 15th BRICS summit to release the data since the spotlight was on South Africa.[4]

Organisation and structure

The Macro-Structure of the Department of Defence as Approved by the Minister of Defence on 15 August 2008 is below:[6]

See also

References

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