Belly flop

This crash is a shame, wasting lots of money and diverting necessary funds for real needs by diverting to thse so-called “prestige projects”. This massive and high profile endevour has crashed in a spectacular belly flop. The mismanagement in our armed forces is a general mess as we know and this naval issue proves the point. It also raises the specific question whether this deal can still be reversed or even cancelled. Otherwise it’s not about blue whales, but about the idiomatic white elephants all over again. It’s high time to stop corrupt dealings like this. Especially if you don’t even have qualified drivers for this kind of war machine. Where did the pilots qualify for their  licence or were these certificates just part of some deal with I&J (Fishing company freely translated as “ek en jy” – meaning “some for me and some for you”) or some other Aldi or Schlecker trying to perk up the transaction in a sort of deal nobody can refuse.

Are German taxpayers aware of what this shady deal down South costs them? And do they realize that we on our side can’t keep these sophisticated war gadgets afloat? We need weapons to defend our marine heritage and coastline yes, but does that entail sinking vessels worth billions and creating artificial breeding grounds for all sorts of marine creatures. There’s a cheaper and more efficient way of doing that.

Read here about the dismal failure of keeping the SA naval fleet of attack submarines afloat: Not one of the R8 billion arms deal submarines is operational – Times LIVE.