Minister comes out guns blazing
Opposition distorted SA mission in CAR
DEFENCE Minister Nosiviwe MapisaNqakula went on the attack yesterday in her continuing efforts to explain South Africa’s military debacle in the Central African Republic (CAR), accusing opposition parties and the media of colluding to undermine the government’s foreign policy.
Members of the DA had, she said, “almost thanked their gods for handing them the gift of the loss of our soldiers so close to the next general elections”.
“When the eyes of the nation are filled with tears, theirs only saw how these tragic deaths will justify the resuscitation of calls for a ‘motion of no confidence’ in a democratically and popularly elected government,” she said.
Mapisa-Nqakula was making a long-awaited statement in the National Assembly on events in the CAR that led to the deaths of 13 SANDF troops when rebels stormed the country’s capital, Bangui.
Opposition parties had used the mainstream media to “build a consistent campaign to distort the mission of our soldiers in the CAR”, she said.
They had turned to the “vulgarism” of saying the mission had no official status, she said, referring to claims that the original memorandum of understanding between the countries had expired in February last year, and was renewed only in December through an “exchange of diplomatic notes”.
Mapisa-Nqakula said the original memorandum, signed in 2007, had provided for this, and for other agreements flowing from it, to survive its expiry.
“Let me assure all our people that South Africa’s involvement in the CAR, just as was the case in Burundi, the DRC, Sudan and elsewhere, has been in pursuance of our international obligation to ensure stability and peace in the continent,” she said.
But opposition MPs said while it was clear the South Africans had fought bravely, they had a duty to establish the truth of why they died.
Threat
DA defence spokesman, David Maynier, said the real question was not why the troops had been sent there, but why they had not been withdrawn when it became clear there was an imminent threat from the rebels.
A request from Margaret Vogt, the UN representative in the CAR, asking for South Africa and others not to withdraw their troops, provided the answer to this question.
She had asked the SANDF to remain in the CAR to create a “firewall” to protect Bangui.
The “exchange of diplomatic notes” signed on December 21 appeared to confirm this, as South Africa had undertaken to reinforce its forces to, among other things, assist with “saving lives in Bangui”.
This showed the troops had been there to stop the rebel advance on the capital, Maynier said. “This is what Parliament and the public was not told about the SANDF deployment to the CAR,” he said.
The deployment had proved to be a “monumental failure”, since President François Bozize, whom South Africa had supported, had fled, rebel leader Michel Djotodia had seized power, the CAR defence force, trained by South Africans, had turned against them and South African military equipment had been abandoned.
“In the end, South Africa was outsmarted, out-manoeuvred and out-gunned in the CAR,” Maynier said.
The IFP’s Albert Mncwango said contradictory statements from the Presidency, the Department of International Relations and Co-operation and the Defence Ministry gave the impression of a cover-up.
“The president was at best vague when he provided Parliament with reasons for the extension of the deployment. The minister was just clueless. The incongruencies continue to stack up in this matter,” he said.
Reports suggested the soldiers had not been properly equipped, there was only one medical doctor and they were not prepared to engage the number of rebels they encountered, he said.
UDM leader Bantu Holomisa, a former general, said Mapisa-Nqakula would have been able to supply better answers if she had asked the military for its operational report. It would reveal “who failed our troops”.
He said it was “incomprehensible” that Mapisa-Nqakula had not anticipated the threat when she had visited the CAR in December and been briefed by the government there on the imminent rebel offensive.
Azapo’s Koti Dikobo said while his party supported South Africa’s peacekeeping efforts in Africa, under the auspices of the AU or UN, the circumstances of this deployment were “dubious”.
Dikobo said the extension of the agreement between the presidents of the two countries had not been ratified by their parliaments as required.
“There were also concerns among other African states that South Africa was turning into a ‘bully’ on the continent in the mould of the US in its global interventions,” he said.