Budget 2024 | Extra R3.5bn for troop deployment to DRC, R96m for ICJ genocide costs

Government has added an extra R10.4bn to its original spending plans announced in February

30 October 2024 - 15:39
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The SANDF presence in the DRC has been extended to December. File photo
The SANDF presence in the DRC has been extended to December. File photo
Image: Alaister Russell/The Sunday Times

The government has added an extra R10.4bn to its original spending plans announced in February, including an extra R3.5bn for the deployment of South African soldiers in the war-torn east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

This is according to the medium-termbudgetpolicystatement tabled by finance minister Enoch Godongwana in parliament on Wednesday.

President Cyril Ramaphosa told parliament this week the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) presence in the DRC as part of the SADC peacekeeping mission would be extended. 

Despite the mission being criticised in parliament by the DA and ActionSA, who decry the deployment of “ill-equipped” SANDF troops and “deplorable living conditions”, Ramaphosa said 1,198 troops would remain on the ground until December 20.

In his “in-year spending adjustments,” Godongwana also allocated R96m to government’s legal fees related to its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

An amount of R2.1bn has been allocated to “unforeseeable and unavoidable expenditure” or contingency category to deal with the effect of natural disasters.

Godongwana has also set aside funds to repay the debt incurred by national roads agency Sanral for the Gauteng freeway improvement project, generally referred to as the e-toll system.

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