South Africa's defence procurement, disposals and research and development agency Armscor is busy changing its relationship with the South African defence industry, Armscor CEO Kevin Wakeford affirmed on Thursday. It is moving from being prescriptive to industry to being collaborative with industry. "Industry is a client [of Armscor]," he asserted. "We have to come to the party!"

"As a developing continent, rogue behaviour will manifest from time to time," he cautioned. The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has to be prepared for this. However, "[w]e aren't fully equipped. We aren't meeting the United Nations benchmarking in certain situations."

"What are the challenges?" he queried. "The Defence Review has been approved by Parliament. We have a political mandate. But it's no good having a political mandate if you don't have an economic mandate, a financial mandate, a funding mandate."

In his address, he raised a number of questions and issues. "Some [South African defence] companies have very good order books and others don't. We need to look into this. How to grow the industry and give the smaller players a better chance? How to define and maintain sovereign capabilities? Sovereign capabilities doesn't necessarily mean State ownership. ... How can Armscor support the defence industry to make a quantum difference to the South African economy?"

Should the Preferential Procurement Act and the Public Finance Management Act be amended to give certain exemptions for defence acquisition and procurement? Those defence companies focused on partnerships, whether with Armscor, the SANDF and/or other companies would, he suggested, be "likely to pick up some momentum."

Then there was the potential for non-defence companies to support the SANDF, especially on its deployments elsewhere in Africa. "What South African civilian industries can offer synergies with military requirements and the defence industry?" he questioned. "Support in Africa -- what support can we get from the private sector?" One suggestion he made was that the SANDF, on deployment, buy food from the local subsidiaries of South African retail chains.

"The Defence Review requires funding," he pointed out. "Can the Treasury afford it? ... The SANDF has insufficient funding. Funding innovation is required for a cash injection." There were underperforming and even idle State assets, which could be better exploited to help produce funding for defence, he suggested.

Wakeford was speaking at the Denel Aerospace, Maritime and Defence Conference 2015 in Pretoria.