DA to seek details on CAR debacle

[iolsa]

Cape Town - Even as President Jacob Zuma considers whether to send a new SANDF mission to the Central African Republic after regional leaders reportedly “begged” him to do so, the DA is to table a motion on Tuesday 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 on Tuesday, when Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula is also set 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 Mapisa-Nqakula 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 a new one.

The committee should investigate:

* 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 mandate and hold Zuma and Mapisa-Nqakula accountable for their actions in the process.

This comes after weekend reports that leaders of 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 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 any decision to deploy the SANDF in the CAR again, 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’,” he said.

Political Bureau



IOLSA