DEFENCE DARREN OLIVIER
If solid evidence is required as to just how desperately underfunded the South African Air Force (SAAF) is, when one of its Oryx helicopters was recently hit by ground fire during the SADC mission in Mozambique there were no spare aircraft readily available to replace it.
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ET AT THE SAME TIME two Oryxes, serials 1234 and 1237, were being sent back to the Air Force from Denel, unserviced, because they had stood waiting and gathering dust at Denel's facilities for so many months that they were becoming a liability. There were even discussions within the SAAF about decommissioning both airframes, given how unlikely it is now that they could be returned to service, and handing one over to the Air Force Museum and using another as a training aid. The removal process was temporarily halted, after 1234 had already returned to 17 Squadron at AFB Swartkop, with a new order from the Air Force changing their minds. They later issued an official statement saying that they intend to return the aircraft to service after major maintenance is complete, but despite that it seems certain that the decommissioning will still go ahead regardless in a few weeks or months, because there simply isn't enough funding and they're at the back of a long queue of other Oryxes & Rooivalks awaiting servicing.
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FlightCom: October 2021
What makes this unusual, and frustrating, is that these Oryxes weren’t waiting for so long, or planned for withdrawal, because they’re at the end of their service life, damaged beyond economic repair, or excess to needs. On the contrary, both helicopters have years of flying left in their airframes and main components, are in excellent condition, and the SAAF desperately needs more Oryxes to meet Joint Operations & training requirements. As it is, there are only a pair of Oryxes in Mozambique for the SADC mission, despite a need for far more, because with five committed to the DRC and standby requirements in South Africa, there simply aren’t enough available. So why were they being removed from Denel, and even potentially decommissioned? In short, because they flew to Denel for a scheduled major service many months ago and have since stood gathering dust, while most of their components were stripped off to keep other Oryxes flying. This is because of Denel’s
