Action SA has joined calls for Defence Minister Angie Motshekga to resign. ActionSA MP Athol Trollip supports the calls for her to step down.
“As confirmed by Minister Motshekga in her reply to my parliamentary question, she said the deployment is devoid of strategy and a lack of national interest…Frankly, there is no defensible reason to continue. Minister Angie Motshekga must resign or be fired by the end of the day. Our troops must return before the end of this month. Order honourable member, your time has run out.”
On Monday, Parliament held a special sitting during which the deaths of 14 South African soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were debated.
The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) members were killed in fighting between the M23 rebels and the Congolese military two weeks ago. Their bodies are currently in Uganda in a repatriation process.
‘We need to withdraw from DRC’
During the sitting, the Democratic Alliance (DA) MP on Defence and Military Veterans, Chris Hattingh, also called for Motshekga’s resignation.
“One day we will know the real reasons that President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed Angie Motshekga as the Minister of Defence. For now, it’s simple, it doesn’t make sense. We agree that they are right, it doesn’t make sense. Let me make this clear. We need to withdraw from the DRC immediately and Minister Motshekga must go. Honourably or otherwise. The time for excuses is over,” says Hattingh.
‘Enemy has better weaponry’
Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader, Julius Malema, accused government of not properly equipping the army.
“The truth is that our soldiers are not there to maintain peace. They are engaged in direct combat fighting against the highly armed and strategically superior M23 rebels who are supported by the reckless president of Rwanda Paul Kagame. Our president deliberately misled the people. The reality is that our soldiers are fighting an enemy that has better weaponry, better resources and better intelligence. Whilst the rebels possess military equipment, our soldiers are sent to battle without drones, without fighter jets and critical military assets.”
Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) MP, Edward Ntshingila, says former president Jacob Zuma, who is now the leader of the MK, handled the deployment of SANDF in DRC better during his tenure.
‘Opportunist’
Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Defence has described calls for Minister Motshekga’s resignation as opportunist. The committee’s Chairperson Dakota Legoete says the soldiers were deployed to the DRC long before Motshekga became Defence Minister.
“She’s only less than six months in office after being appointed by the President. When she was appointed the the ordeal in the Eastern DRC was already on and it would be very unfair and very unfortunate for calling for a resignation at such an early point of the case and we would like any political party to get to their senses and understand the sense of the occasion, where we are now, we are mourning the death of 14 of our soldiers. There is no need for any political party to dance on the souls of our fallen soldiers, or even use this for political mileage.”
Meanwhile, Motshekga has reiterated that the attack on South African soldiers by the M23 rebels in the DRC was in violation of the Nairobi peace accord.
The minister told the house that the arrival of deceased bodies will not be later than Thursday this week.
Details of the debate in the report below:
