JUSTICE MALALA | War talk with despotic Kagame is beneath democratic Ramaphosa

There are several reasons why President Cyril Ramaphosa was absolutely correct to refrain from getting into a shouting match with his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame, last week. After news broke that 13 South African soldiers had died in the eastern DRC while on a peacekeeping mission in that trouble-torn region, Ramaphosa posted on social media that South Africa’s “military presence in the eastern DRC is not a declaration of war against any country”.

In response, Kagame accused South Africa, which has been involved in mediation efforts in the region since Nelson Mandela’s tenure in the 1990s, of being in “no position to take on the role of a peacemaker or mediator” in the conflict. He went on to throw down a gauntlet that suggested that he was ready for war.

“If South Africa prefers confrontation, Rwanda will deal with the matter in that context any day,” he concluded.

Ramaphosa did not respond, and for that he should be congratulated. There are several reasons why it does not make any sense whatsoever to tangle with Kagame or escalate the already fraught situation in the Great Lakes region.

In 2021, it emerged that Ramaphosa was allegedly identified for surveillance by Rwandan intelligence agents using the NSO Group, an Israeli cybersecurity firm.

The first reason is that there is an important difference between Ramaphosa and Kagame. For all his faults, Ramaphosa is a democrat who leads an open, free, democratic country whose credentials in that department cannot be questioned by anyone anywhere in the world. Kagame, on the other hand, is a man whose government is notorious across the globe for the frequency with which its critics are attacked or killed. We have seen this happen in South Africa. In 2010, former Rwanda army chief Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa survived an assassination attempt when shots were fired at his car in the driveway of his Johannesburg home. In 2014 his house was mysteriously broke into. The South African government expelled Rwandan diplomats after linking its intelligence agents to the raid.

In 2013, Rwandan opposition politician Patrick Karegeya was found dead at the Michelangelo Hotel in Sandton. His killing is widely suspected to have been politically motivated. Rwanda denies these charges.

While South Africa hosts competitive elections in which the ANC can only win 40% of the vote, as it did this year, Kagame won 99% of his elections with no credible opposition party or candidate allowed to participate. In 2021, it emerged that Ramaphosa was allegedly identified for surveillance by Rwandan intelligence agents using the NSO Group, an Israeli cybersecurity firm. The NSO Group and Rwanda denied the reports.

The point I am making is that for Ramaphosa to respond to the Kagame histrionics would have been to demean himself. Rwanda is what it is, and there is no need to engage with its liking for war talk.

That, however, does not mean we should not hold our own government, led by Ramaphosa, to account for the deaths of the 13 soldiers in Goma last week. Ramaphosa should take responsibility for over the years sending our men and women to participate in peace missions across the continent while systematically denying the defence forces money for improvements in equipment, training, intelligence and personnel numbers. Readers should do themselves a favour and read this week’s Sunday Times. The litany of failures over the past 30 years, of equipment that is rotting in bases from the Simon's Town dockyards to the Lohatla training camp, is enough to make one weep.

In summary, the South African National Defence Force is operating with about 10% of its equipment operational. It is an entity that is broken. Indeed, if we were to go to war with a country such as Rwanda we would be embarrassed. That country’s force has been in combat mode since 1994. It is fit for purpose and would have the SANDF on its knees in less than a week.

South Africa cannot continue to hold lofty ideals of being a force for peace on the continent while refusing to do the hard work of running a disciplined, fit and well-funded defence force. For years now everyone from defence force chiefs to journalists and through to even the auditor-general have warned that the SANDF is in a critical condition. Nearly every week we read about huge corruption in one or other part of the force. We should not be surprised when our soldiers in the DRC then claim they have run out ammunition, food or water. Their necessities have probably been stolen by corrupt superiors while politicians in South Africa do nothing.

South Africa's participation in peacekeeping missions across the continent is something we should be immensely proud of. It is the least we can do to build the peaceful and prosperous Africa we want. However, these things cannot be done unless we dedicate ourselves to building an efficient, well-resourced, corruption-free, defence force. We have not done that.

That’s why 13 of our soldiers are now dead.