The deaths of 14 South African soldiers on peacekeeping duty three thousand kilometres from home was aptly remembered at yesterday’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) in Cape Town.
All uniformed SA National Defence Force (SANDF) personnel on parade from aides de camp through to the National Ceremonial Guard (NCG), musicians, and military police wore black armbands in a gesture of respect to fallen comrades.
The SONA event featured a ceremonial Guard of Honour, a flypast of aircraft, a 21-gun salute and street-liners saluting Commander-in-Chief President Cyril Ramaphosa as he made his way to the Cape Town City Hall. The SA National Defence Force band played the South African National Anthem.
In a further tribute, Ramaphosa ordered the national flag be flown at half-mast for a week to honour the dead, whose remains are today (Friday, 7 February) due to be returned to South Africa from Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
“We gather here as our country is mourning the tragic and devastating loss of 14 South African soldiers, who were part of a mission to bring peace to eastern DRC,” Ramaphosa said.
“Alongside soldiers from other Southern African countries, they lost their lives in defence of the fundamental right of the Congolese people to live in peace and security. They lost their lives not in the pursuit of resources or territory or power. They lost their lives so that the guns on our continent may be forever silenced,” the President said.
Elaborating on South Africa’s continental peacekeeping efforts, Ramaphosa said that Africa remains at the centre of South Africa’s foreign policy.
“We continue to work to strengthen the African Union to support the achievement of peace, development and economic integration on the continent. We know that our future prosperity is inextricably bound to the prosperity of the African continent. For Africa to thrive, we must silence the guns on the continent.”
Since the advent of democracy, South Africa has been instrumental in restoring stability in countries like Côte d’Ivoire, Burundi, South Sudan and Lesotho, Ramaphosa said. “Most recently, we have been part of the SADC peacekeeping mission in Mozambique that has brought relative calm and stability to the Cabo Delgado province.”
“The presence of South African peacekeepers in the eastern DRC is testament to our continued commitment to the peaceful resolution of one of the world’s most intractable conflicts, which has cost millions of lives and displaced millions of people. We call on all parties to embrace the current diplomatic efforts to find a peaceful resolution, including honouring the Luanda Process,” Ramaphosa said in his address.
“We will attend the Joint Summit between SADC and the East African Community scheduled to take place in Tanzania this weekend, where we will reiterate our call for a ceasefire and a resumption of talks to find a just and enduring solution.”
Political analyst and senior lecturer at the University of Limpopo, Dr Metji Makgoba, told IOL that Ramaphosa during his SONA “failed to explain clearly what happened and why the soldiers were there. We are told we are on a peacekeeping mission, but additional details would help clarify the situation, especially for the families of those who may have loved ones in the DRC.”
Speaking during the SONA, ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba said, “We want answers, and we demand them, and we’re not going to stop making noise about this because we want our soldiers back in our country to come and actually guard our borders to stop international criminal syndicates coming into our country.”
Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance (DA) had its requested to scale down the SANDF presence at SONA ignored. In a letter to speaker of parliament Thoko Didiza, the DA requested that the fly-over by the SA Air Force be cancelled, saying it was inappropriate for “government officials and dignitaries to be entertained by grand military displays while our soldiers, under-equipped and lacking critical support, are dying on foreign soil”.
Repatriation
The bodies of the 14 South African soldiers killed in the DRC are due to be repatriated on Friday after being handed over to the United Nations, which is managing the process. defenceWeb also understand that the bodies of four Malawian and Tanzanian soldiers who were also killed during fighting around Goma will be repatriated at the same time.
It was reported that the remains were on Friday being initially moved by road through Rwanda, which backs the M23 rebels at whose hands the South African, Malawian and Tanzanian soldiers died, although Rwanda repeatedly denies this.
The Chief of the SANDF, General Rudzani Maphwanya, earlier said the remains would be repatriated on Wednesday, but the SANDF yesterday said the process of moving the deceased out of the combat zone had been delayed.
The deaths of the 14 have raised concerns about the resources available to SANDF troops, with some political parties calling for their withdrawal from the DRC. South Africa has troops serving with both the United Nations mission in the DRC (Monusco) and the Southern African Development Community Mission in the DRC (SAMIDRC).
Rwanda, meanwhile, appears to have suffered heavy losses of its forces in the DRC. The Guardian reported that hundreds of its troops have been killed during covert operations in the eastern (DRC).
Satellite imagery of one military cemetery in the Rwandan capital of Kigali indicates at least 600 graves have been dug since the M23 – backed by Rwandan troops – restarted operations within DRC three years ago, the publication reported.
