DRC losses expose limit of SA’s diplomatic ambitions

31 January 2025 - 06:55 By Tim Cocks and Joe Bavier
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The SA National Defence Force presence in the DRC has been marred by the deaths of 13 soldiers. File photo.
The SA National Defence Force presence in the DRC has been marred by the deaths of 13 soldiers. File photo.
Image: Alaister Russell/The Sunday Times

South Africa often uses its diplomatic heft to position itself as defender of the "global south" on the world stage, but the deaths of 13 of its soldiers in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) fighting have exposed an inability to project hard power in its own backyard.

President Cyril Ramaphosa's government has challenged US hegemony, taken a strong stand against Israel's actions in Gaza and is intent on defending the interests of developing nations, notably as it assumes the G20 presidency this year.

However, in Africa, its efforts to exert influence have been plagued by missteps over the past decade.

In the DRC this week, Rwandan-backed M23 rebels seized Goma, the country's largest eastern city. A force composed of SA troops and Southern African allies tasked with stopping the insurgents has taken heavy losses and is surrounded and without a clear exit strategy.

"It's a blow to South Africa's standing on the continent," said Liesl Louw-Vaudran, senior advisor on the AU for the International Crisis Group, a non-profit group that researches and offers ways to resolve armed conflicts.

Far from uniting African nations, the week's events have driven a wedge between Ramaphosa and Rwandan President Paul Kagame, arguably the continent's two most high-profile leaders.

The two men have sparred over social media. Ramaphosa has blamed the fighting on M23 and the Rwandan army. Kagame denies backing M23, rejecting UN reports to the contrary, and does not admit to military involvement in eastern DRC.

His government accuses the DRC's military of joining forces with ethnic Hutu-led militias bent on slaughtering Tutsis in the DRC and threatening to Rwanda, where Hutu militias targeted Tutsis in a 1994 genocide before fleeing across the border.

It has accused SA forces of working alongside the Hutu FDLR, a charge South Africa denies.

South Africa's poor showing in the DRC crisis has gone down badly at home. Photos that surfaced showing the heads of the army and air force playing golf during the crisis this week caused public outrage.

The ANC lost its majority last year for the first time in three decades. The DA, the ANC's largest partner in Ramaphosa's coalition government, has accused him of not providing the proper training, weapons or equipment to the troops deployed.

Addressing media in Pretoria on Wednesday, defence minister Angie Motshekga denied reports that SA forces in the DRC were ill equipped or lacking ammunition or food.

"Losing soldiers in a battle that seems a hell of a long way away (and) has always seemed very murky," said Jakkie Cilliers, a political scientist and founder of the Institute of Security Studies.

"It's not clear how that plays out among the general populace."

South Africans have seen this before.

The slow decline over the past decade of the country's military capability has led to previous failures in other peace enforcement efforts on the continent, including in the Central African Republic and, more recently, Mozambique.

Chris Vandome, a senior research fellow at Chatham House, said problems in recent missions related to ammunition supplies, a lack of air support, appropriate vehicles and general logistics have led to "perceptions this is a force that is deployed but is under-equipped to carry out the mission".

All the analysts told Reuters the root issue is a lack of spending.

SA defence spending has dropped to 0.7% of GDP, from 1.5% of GDP in the late 1990s, said Darren Olivier, a defence analyst at African Defence Review.

That has created a chasm between SA's diplomatic ambitions and its capacity to back up its words with military action.

Olivier said: "South Africa is trying to act as though it still has the military strength of a decade ago. It's delusional."

Reuters


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