South Africa has the 26th most powerful military in the world, up from 32nd in 2012. It is ranked second in Africa, after Egypt. But, analysts have for years warned that the country’s military is in a state of critical decline. The defence ministry and military leaders have lamented the debilitating cuts to its budget over the years.
The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) is an amalgamation of the former apartheid-era South African Defence Force, the armies of the four former “independent homelands” – Transkei, Ciskei, Venda and Bophuthatswana – as well as the armies of the liberation movements, the African National Congress and the Pan Africanist Congress.
