Army ducks and dives on DRC mission

The defence force is ready to deploy troops in the war-ravaged eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula.

"Broadly speaking, we are ready to deploy. Yes, we have challenges, especially when it comes to our landward capabilities, but we are prepared,'' Mapisa-Nqakula said on Friday after the defence budget vote in parliament.

"Whether we have enough depends on the nature of the conflict. We may run short in one area, but in others not.

"However, how the chiefs of the different arms of service get the things there or anywhere else is not my problem," she said.

South Africa is poised to deploy 1000 airborne infantry from 6 SA Infantry Battalion, based in Eastern Cape. In the DRC as part of a UN "stabilisation force" they would be up against heavily armed M23 rebels.

Unlike the roughly 17000 UN peacekeepers already in the DRC, the soldiers in the stabilisation force will have the authority to engage the enemy.

Military analysts have warned that the M23 rebels are likely to prove far more formidable opponents than the Seleka rebels South African troops clashed with in Bangui, in the Central African Republic, in March. Fourteen South African soldiers died in that encounter.

Mapisa-Nqakula, who admitted to serious failures and capacity problems in defence intelligence after the Bangui debacle, said on Friday: "We are re-prioritising the direction of the budget."

Asked about the army's readiness for the DRC campaign, SANDF chief General Solly Shoke said: "If we face a threat, then we are all threatened.

"If we have to use stones, spades and machetes, and mobilise civilians, then we will."

Asked if soldiers heading to the DRC would have adequate air support, neither the chief of the air force, Lieutenant-General Zimpande Msimang, nor Mapisa-Nqakula, would answer.

Shoke said the UN would decide what kind of support to provide to the troops in its stabilisation force.