The SANDF is so broke it has no money to host Armed Forces Day

As the dust settles after President Cyril Ramaphosa's State of the Nation Address (SONA), which involved the usual pomp and ceremony and a complement of SA National Defence Force (SANDF) staff and jets, soldiers are frustrated because they won't be able to commemorate Armed Forces Day on 21 February.

Armed Forces Day is an annual event that marks South Africa's greatest wartime maritime disaster - the sinking of the troopship SS Mendi in the English Channel on 21 February 1917. It collided with a steamship and more than 600 South African, mostly black, soldiers died. 

But SANDF management recently told soldiers that there was "no money" for the event, which was inaugurated by former president Jacob Zuma in 2012, and which has been hosted in different provinces each year.