SANDF troops are part of a SADC deployment in DRC. Picture: Reuters
On 23 January 2025, news out of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) revealed that several South African soldiers had been killed while on a peacekeeping mission in that country. A few days later, that number was confirmed at 14.
The backlash was swift and sharp, not least from the Democratic Alliance (DA). A coalition partner to the African National Congress (ANC) in the government of national unity, the DA quickly took a stand against the deployment.
“President Cyril Ramaphosa sent the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to combat in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with the full knowledge that our troops were unprepared; that the mission could not be won; and that our fiscus could not afford it,” the DA’s Chris Hattingh reacted.
In May 2023, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) responded to the deteriorating situation in eastern DRC by approving the deployment of 5 000 troops from South Africa, Tanzania and Malawi. SA is leading this mission, but many see it as a failure.
This view is different from those held by ANC ministers and their president. They took pains to explain SA’s murky foreign policy positions, but with little effect.
Delivering his state of the nation address (SONA) two weeks later, Ramaphosa once again presented it as a peacekeeping mission. But by the time Parliament convened to debate the DRC deployment, opposition parties pressed for it to be put to an end.
“Our ill-equipped, under-resourced, demoralised, and outgunned soldiers were sent to fight in a war in which we have no “apparent” demonstrable interest, and they were set up to fail and die,” said Athol Trollip MP, of ActionSA.
Trollip and Hattingh called for the immediate resignation of defence minister Angie Motshekga. After all, many have questioned Ramaphosa’s decision to place an educator as the political head of the military.
Professor Lindy Heinecken has focused on the SANDF for three decades. She spent time as a researcher and deputy director of the Centre for Military Studies (CEMIS) at the South African Military Academy. Now, she is an associate professor of sociology in the Sociology and Social Anthropology Department at Stellenbosch University.
In her view, SA’s involvement is a waste. “South Africa does not have the capacity to make a difference,” she says, without hesitation. There two things, she suggests, that need to happen next.
First, walk away.
“You come out with a bloody nose instead of coming out battered to death. So that is the choice. I would rather say let’s come out with a bloodied nose than lose any more soldiers and any more equipment and spend any more money on a mission an operation that is not going to succeed.
Next, replace Motshekga with someone who has the necessary experience.
“We are consistently appointing what I call ‘token ministers’ that don’t understand the complexities of defense. We do have a deputy minister of defense, Bantu Holomisa, that really does understand the military from inside, out. He would be far better versed for this role than Angie Motshekga now.”
The bodies of SANDF soldiers are now home-bound and are expected to arrive in SA on Thursday.
