If you want peace, be prepared to pay
IF YOU WANT PEACE, PREPARE FOR WAR. It’s an old philosophy dating back beyond Roman times, even as far as Plato. It’s a statement that has a particular relevance for those who keep the peace in times of war, that speaks of the price in blood that has to be paid by soldiers in hostile environments sent there to protect the innocent and bring the warring factions to heel.
For 70 years, the United Nations has been doing just that. To date more than a million people from different countries have served under the blue flag of the organisation. 3 700 of them have died wearing the blue helmet – 55 of them have been South Africans.
South Africa was one of the first contributors to the UN peacekeeping missions, sending a SAAF squadron to fight in the bitter Korean War in 1950, but peacekeeping began in earnest in 1998 on missions on behalf of the South African Development Community to restore order in Lesotho, for the African Union in Burundi at late president Nelson Mandela’s request where he was brokering a peace deal. The troops were rapidly deployed there in September 2001. The United Nations then created a special peacekeeping force for Burundi, designated ONUB, which became the first ever UN force to be commanded by a South Africa in the shape of Major General Derrick Mgwebi.
Mgwebi, who was the head of special forces in the SANDF, before becoming chief of joint operations in a highly distinguished local career, won further acclaim for the SANDF and the country, when he was appointed head of Monusco, the largest UN peacekeeping force in the world at 20 000 soldiers based in the Congo from the beginning of 2015 until the end of 2017. Monusco also has the only UN peace enforcement unit – the Force Intervention Brigade – which is mandated to engage in military offensives against enemy or ‘negative forces’. The new commander of this unit is also a South African; Brigadier General Patrick Dube.
South Africa is the 11th highest contributor to the UN’s peacekeeping efforts in Africa and the 17th largest in the world. Last Tuesday, on the 70th anniversary of the first ‘blue helmet’ mission annually commemorated as the international Day of the UN peacekeepers, the chief of the South African National Defence Force, General Solly Shoke unveiled a memorial wall at the De Brug Mobilisation Centre. It is there where SANDF members spend at least a month in mission specific training before being deployed directly from Bloemspruit Airforce base. Currently, the SANDF has army, SAAF and SAMHS personnel in the DRC as part of Monusco.
Peacekeeping is an SANDF imperative said current chief of joint operations, Lieutenant General Barney Hlatshwayo, effectively the general who overseas all South African external missions.
“It’s an important structure of government to ensure our foreign policy is understood. As the chief was saying earlier, our peace is meaningless if there is no peace elsewhere on the continent.”
During the unveiling, which was attended by spouses, parents, children and other relatives of those who have perished on South African external missions for the UN and others, Shoke spoke of the need to lead the peace process in the continent.
“Peace is not something that comes easy, we have to work for it. We believe in peace,” he said explaining that instability in the continent had immediate and measurable ramifications for South Africa.
“Events that take place around us do affect us politically, economically and otherwise, we end up with a number of political and economic refugees in this country, we find ourselves saturated (stressing) the little resources that we have.”
Peacekeeping he said was intrinsically dangerous and soldiers had to be prepared for that.
“Our job is not like any other government department. Death is part of our job description. We are here to serve our people and our country to ensure there is peace and prosperity.”
Hlatshwayo has been at the forefront of moves to lessen the risks peacekeepers face, particularly in the Congo.
“There two key issues; safeguarding civilians and mounting offensive military action,” he said, noting that the problem was that the two often became conflated with fatal consequences for the Tanzanian contingent last year, leaving 15 dead and 53 wounded.
“This year’s a big year with the election in the DRC. We argued strongly that company operation bases should not be the responsibility of the Force Intervention Brigade, but rather that of the framework forces like Monusco. We need to free the SANDF to be able to engage in offensive action.”
The SANDF would man temporary bases to protect the population but there needed to be a time frame on what temporary was.
“We need clarity on what temporary operating bases are. In our mind, temporary means 14 days, but often temporary bases are there for years, civilians flock to them thinking they are a safe haven. Informal sett lements spring up around the base and insurgents move among the people, making it very difficult to defend the base. This is what happened to the Tanzanians.”
Speaking to the assembled guests, which included the SANDF’s command council, Shoke said he was proud to pay tribute to the South African peacekeepers by unveiling the wall.
“Today, here in Bloemfontein we have a site that is dedicated to our heroes and heroines who when there was a clarion call they raised the flag and unfortunately during the course of duty they passed on.
“For their deeds, they will always be remembered for they served the nation with pride and dignity.”
As he finished speaking and returned the salute from the national ceremonial guard ranked in front of him, a wail rent the air as the bugler played taps and then reveille; the traditional military respect for the dead and then for the living.
One wail was followed by another as the pain of memory became too much. One woman had to be helped by the many SANDF chaplains on duty. Other relatives sat still and wept where they sat under the awning.
Shoke laid a wreath on behalf of the president, Cyril Ramaphosa. He was followed by the director of the UN Information Centre in Pretoria Masimba Tafirenyika, who laid a wreath on behalf of UN secretary general Antonio Guterres.
Afterwards he remarked how of the 15 annual commemorations he had attended as a former UN peacekeeper himself, this had been the most moving.
“I’m a former civilian peacekeeper having served in Liberia and in Sierra Leone immediately after the bloody civil war there. I’m always moved by the sight of troops trained to kill working selflessly for peace.”
Roos Katrina Davids from Pretoria West, was chosen to lay the wreath on behalf of all the relatives of those who had died. Mrs Davids lost her son, Staff Sergeant Samson Davids in the DRC.
“He died on September 30, 2008, it feels like yesterday,” she said.
Afterwards, relatives came forward to place single roses in memory of the 55 SANDF personnel whose names are inscribed on the marble panels on the wall.
Many cried openly. Kelebogile Gingoko had travelled down from Mahikeng in North West to remember her cousin, paratrooper Karabo Matsheka who perished during the Battle of Bangui in 2013. “We always remember him,” she said. The wall means a great deal for the soldiers too. 36-year SANDF veteran Sergeant Kapok Ndzongana is one.
“There a lot of bad memories,” he said, his eyes darkening as he stood in front of the SAAF Oryx helicopter painted all in white in UN livery.
The chopper and its crew will be redeploying to the DRC later this month.
Afterwards Mrs Davids, accompanied by her daughter Roos Maya, S Sgt Davids’s sister, and Samlewin Davids, his son, went back to look at the wall and the names on the marble insets. “He was such a big lad,” said Mrs Davids. “It’s such an honour to be here among so many other people, and to see just how broken we all are – and to draw strength from that. The defence force has been so kind to give us this opportunity to mourn and to heal.”