The South African Army is in serious trouble financially, unable to field even a single combat brigade and with all but 30 of its 140 tanks and 18 of its 200 armored cars in storage for lack of operating funds. The crisis has been caused by numerous peacekeeping and security commitments, huge purchases of new weapons, and skyrocketing manpower costs. The main problem with manpower costs is that there are thousands of over-age (and non-deployable) senior sergeants on the payroll, most of whom are former guerrillas who cannot be discharged because they are protected by powerful political factions.--Stephen V Cole