Lieutenant Z. Nkabinde
The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has filed charges against a company which supplied it with expired ration packs.
The SANDF says the packs were distributed to more than 6,000 soldiers deployed across the country to help enforce a five-week lockdown to slow the spread of COVID-19.
SANDF Chief, General Solly Shoke, says the charges were opened with military police at the defence headquarters in Pretoria.
He said that if the incident proves to be true then it is tantamount to sabotage of the SANDF’s mandate to protect South Africa.
Colonel Louis Kirstein said defence authorities were notified of the expired goods by a soldier on the ground, and an inspection of the ration packs found this to be true – the expired dates of the ration packs had a new sticker over it with a new date.
The SANDF did not identify the company involved by name and confirmed that a case of fraud had been opened with the military police.
-ANA
