I recently had a drinking session with a bunch of guys at a club up north and according to a retired full colonel, the SAF never treated it's enlistees as soldiers.
Henceforth DSTA's directive has always been to choose the cheapest possible equipment for the enlistees making them some of the worst equipped fighting force out of Basic Military Training.
According to some reliable sources, the new digital camouflage uniforms which the SAF intends to adopt is already known to be a flop cause some of the colors are somewhat reflective making the soldier more visible.
That's why they've yet to go public with their new uniforms but they can't scrap their plans cause they've already paid for the patents!
No prize for guessing which agency is responsible and how many millions would be wasted.
Very true about SAF being cheapo, remember the damn black pt canvas shoes, the cheapo blue PT shorts and the damn khaki socks that shrink after washes. It was never about upholding standards but basic clothing for prisoners serving out their term thats all.
Remember the first batch of newspaper camo No 4, it what you mention about the new digital No4. I won't be at all surprise by the incompentency of the SAF.
So far, DSTA is only good in spending money, nothing really good come out from them. Even the SAR21 is a copy of the Tavor 21.