DA to table motion on ill-fated Central African Republic military mission
EVEN as President Jacob Zuma considers whether to send a new SANDF mission to the Central African Republic (CAR) after regional leaders reportedly “begged” him to do so, the DA is to table a motion today calling for Parliament to investigate the ill-fated previous mission.
DA parliamentary leader, Lindiwe Mazibuko, said she would move the draft resolution at the first sitting of this term today, when Defence Min- ister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula is also to make a statement on the mission, in which 13 South African troops were killed when rebels overran their base en route to the capital Bangui.
Mazibuko said Parliament’s joint standing committee on defence must investigate the processes followed by MapisaNqakula in extending South Africa’s defence co-operation agreement with the CAR.
She said a “so-called” second memorandum of understanding between the countries under which the troops were deployed was not, in the DA’s view, an extension of the original agreement, but amounted to a new one.
The committee should investigate, among other things:
Whether the equipment given to SANDF troops stationed in the CAR from February was adequate.
Whether adequate medical support was available.
The SANDF’s compliance with international humanitarian law while stationed in the CAR.
The DA wanted Parliament to fulfil its constitutional man- date and hold Zuma and Mapisa-Nqakula accountable for their actions in the process.
This comes after weekend reports that leaders from the Economic Community of Central African States had begged Zuma to redeploy South African troops to the CAR.
International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane told a Pretoria church gathering they had done so at a CAR summit in Chad on Thursday.
“They were begging us to please come back to the CAR,” Nkoana-Mashabane reportedly said at the Tower of Grace Global Leadership Centre.
Zuma was believed to be considering this request.
South Africa is also set to take part in a UN-backed mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo to neutralise rebel groups in the east of the country. That mission will have a mandate to conduct offensive operations and has been described as a strike force.
Analysts have questioned the SANDF’s ability to sustain its peacekeeping obligations, while also patrolling the border.
DA defence spokesman, David Maynier, said while he was not aware of a decision to deploy the SANDF back to CAR, he did not believe it should be.
“The SANDF is unlikely to be regarded as a legitimate force, given that the Seleka rebels refer to SANDF soldiers as ‘mercenaries’ and have called for the SANDF’s withdrawal from the CAR. We should rather be focusing on the SANDF’s peacekeeping missions in the SADC region,” Maynier said.