Tomorrow, Monday 10 February 2025, the National Assembly will hold the DA-sponsored debate on the South African National Defence Force’s (SANDF) presence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, following the tragic deaths of fourteen soldiers stationed there, ostensibly on a peace-keeping mission in the region.
In a time of mourning, South Africans desperately seek answers on how such a calamity has occurred under the watch of Commander in Chief, President Cyril Ramaphosa, and Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Angie Motshekga.
Our troops have been blatantly blindsided in what is no longer a peacekeeping mission; but an escalating regional conflict that we are woefully unprepared to fight. Minister Motshekga’s blatant incompetence and lack of care in the face of this crisis, and the President’s deafening silence amidst growing calls for answers, are shameful.
On Tuesday, 4 February 2025, the Joint Standing Committee on Defence (JSCD) was called to an extraordinary sitting to discuss the ongoing crisis in the DRC. During the briefing, the Minister – who sometimes struggled to stay awake – failed to answer as to either who advised her and the President to send SANDF soldiers to the DRC and what that advice actually said. She denied that it was anything other than a peace-keeping mission and insisted that our soldiers were properly and adequately resourced.
On Friday, 7 February 2025, the JSCD met once again, where we insisted that the President now provide a full and frank account for the basis of his advice, considering the Minister’s flagrant disregard for the Committee’s duty to hold her accountable. We also reiterated our call that the President’s recent deployment of the troops be terminated and that our soldiers return from the DRC immediately.
In both meetings, the two Co-Chairpersons – both ANC members, installed by their party despite a pre-existing agreement being made with the DA to share the Chairpersonship – proved themselves to be deliberately protecting the Minister and the President from accountability. Their failures to support parliamentarians’ duties to oversee the executive’s actions, are doing nothing but shielding them from scrutiny.
We call on the Co-Chairpersons of the JSCD to schedule a further urgent meeting immediately following Monday’s debate, to reconvene on this existential crisis for the SANDF.
We will not flag nor fail in our efforts to hold the President and the Minister to account for this egregious failure of judgment that cost the lives of fourteen brave and blameless South Africans.