Why Does South Africa Need Armed Forces?: New at Reason

The South African government’s first major spending project post-apartheid was revamping the military. Marian Tupy asks why the country spends so much on its military:

Three reasons come to mind. First, the nation’s military is a massively inefficient jobs program that soaks up some of the country’s unemployed and a patronage system that provides sinecures to the lackeys of the ANC government. Second, it offers marvelous opportunities for self-enrichment to the country’s corrupt elite, which negotiates arms purchases from foreign suppliers.  Third, it is a status symbol. All serious nations have a military and so must South Africa—whether it needs one or not.

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