defenceWeb Written by defenceWeb - Parliament. Parliament âofficiallyâ starts on Thursday this week with the Presidential State of the Nation Address (SONA) but its engine rooms â the oversight committees â are already up and running. The Joint Standing Committee on Defence (JSCD) has already got to work and has another meeting scheduled for this week on Wednesday. Additionally, it has compiled a list of six âchallengesâ it will give special attention to while not ignoring other issues affecting the wider South African defence and security landscape. On projects, committee co-chair Cyril Xaba and his committee members will keep a weather eye on projects Biro (three purpose-built multi-mission inshore patrol vessels), Hoefyster (the long-running and, to all intents and purposes, stalled build of new infantry combat vehicles) and Hotel (a new hydrographic vessel, workboat, support boats and shore infrastructure upgrade). A recommendation is for Armscor and Denel to jointly âlookâ at the viability of continuing with Project Hoefyster.