Staff shortages leave air force no closer to combat readiness

BY Wyndham HAartley

The well-documented critical skills shortage in the South African Air Force is as bad as ever, if not worse, with Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu yesterday acknowledging huge shortages of pilots, technical staff and engineers.

Sisulu, in reply to a parliamentary question from Democratic Alliance MP David Maynier, said almost half of the posts for combat pilots and a third of all helicopter and transport pilot posts were still vacant.

In August, in response to a similar question, Sisulu promised a special recruitment drive to fill the vacancies. At the time, Maynier said the vacancy rate effectively wiped out the combat readiness of the force.

In August, there were 29 combat pilot vacancies, but this had been reduced by only three, with 26 posts reported vacant yesterday. There are 167 posts for helicopter pilots in the air force, of which 58 are vacant, while for transport pilots 48 of 156 posts are unfilled.

Far worse is the situation for technical support crew, where there are more vacancies than filled posts, with 1630 posts on offer and only 763 filled. There is also a dire shortage of engineers, with 70 of 122 posts vacant.

In September, air force chief Carlo Gagiano reported that in the first nine months of this year the air force lost 13 pilots and 74 technical staff to the private sector.

Part of the problem was that budget cuts meant there were fewer hours flown and this proved to be a disincentive to pilots remaining with the air force. Also, technical staff were leaving for better-paid positions in the private sector.

In response, Gagiano has withdrawn the air force from the defence force's centralised recruitment procedure and has returned to its own enlistment process, which was scrapped about nine years ago.

In response to another question from Maynier, Sisulu gave details of the refurbishment of the air force's VIP aircraft. The hours flown in these aircraft have become a bone of contention as many more hours are flown ferrying ministers around than in training combat pilots.

While no refurbishment has been required for the presidential jet, the smaller Falcon 900, now 17 years old, is scheduled for a full interior refurbishment and upgraded engines in the 2010-11 financial year, at an estimated cost of R70m, depending on the exchange rate.

The two Falcon 50 aircraft, bought in the early 1980s, were upgraded in 2005-06 at a cost of R70m, and the two Citation executive jets were refurbished in 2000 at a cost of R64000 each.

Source: Business Day