SA must stand firm in the battle for peace in the DRC

South Africa last week bade farewell as a nation to 14 of its bravest sons and daughters; soldiers who died keeping the peace in a country far from their motherland.

In the immortal words of John Maxwell Edmunds, for our tomorrow, they gave their today.

There will be other more intimate farewells as the families of slain members of the Southern Africa Mission to the DRC (SAMIDRC) and Monusco missions lay their loved ones to rest.

The pain will not lessen – but neither will the importance of their having been in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as a bulwark against the offensive of the M23 rebel group, a contagion which has not just infected one of the biggest countries in the continent, but affects all of us.

There has been plenty of debate, some informed, others wilfully misinformed, about why South Africa deployed elements of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) there.

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There is an understandable desire by all of us to know exactly why our soldiers were attacked and why they had to fight for their lives to survive.

But the war in the Eastern DRC has not ended, instead it has segued into another theatre, a vicious psychological battle for our hearts and minds.

The new weapons of choice are fake news and a steady barrage of disinformation.

Not all the commentariat has the truth as their goal, many elements are hard at work pursuing a more cynical agenda to control the narrative and score political and personal goals.

It is a particularly bitter irony that South Africa, which prides itself on its progressive constitution which enshrines freedom of expression, creates a forum for the exchange of all these views, some by people who would not enjoy the same freedom in their own countries, were they to utter it there.

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We are entitled to our own opinions, but not to our own facts. Opinions must be based on truth and the truth is that the SANDF contingent is in the DRC as part of Southern African Development Community Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (SAMIDRC).

The SANDF continues to be part of both SAMIDRC and Monusco. Two of our fallen were part of the Monusco contingent.

Peace in the DRC is essential for peace in the region and in the continent and peacekeeping is one of the central external missions of the SANDF, as given to it by its inaugural commander-in-chief, Nelson Mandela.

Our members have a proud record of peacekeeping on both sides of the Great Lakes Region and elsewhere in Africa. Sadly, the price for keeping that peace has often been exacted in their blood.

The SANDF continues to shoulder the burden as an organ of state, ranging from the defence of South Africa’s territorial integrity to humanitarian missions within and beyond those borders – and contributing to regional, continental and global peace initiatives.

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There has been a lot of discussion about funding, training, prime mission equipment and operational readiness, but very little debate on the cost of not being there.

The threat that Monusco and SAMIDRC were created to contain and resolve, could end up spreading unchecked like a virus, not just to the rest of the DRC, but the rest of the continent.

The crisis in eastern DRC is not new, nor is it simply the work of disaffected rebels. M23 is a highly trained, well-resourced paramilitary organisation.

The M23 attacks were in clear contravention of the African-brokered Nairobi Peace Process and the ceasefire brokered by the subsequent Luanda Peace Process.

We cannot hope to resolve an issue of this complexity and volatility without a military deterrent to prevent the area from becoming overrun by the rebel forces in the meantime, because this would render any discussion about a lasting peace difficult.

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There are many precedents we can draw upon for guidance, but an enduring one remains Mandela’s comments after the South African-led SADC mission to restore order after the Lesotho coup in 1998.

Operation Boleas, as it was termed, also came under robust criticism from the commentariat but as Mandela noted in his final State of the Nation Address in 1999, “there is no doubt that the SADC’s collective initiative succeeded in creating the space for [Lesotho’s] political leaders to find a peaceful resolution of their differences”.

No-one wants violence, our own country least of all, but when peaceful means fail because you are dealing with unreasonable actors, then sometimes force is the only way to restore equilibrium and get them to see reason and meet one another around a table in an atmosphere of peace and stability.

Tens of thousands of civilians in the eastern DRC depend upon Monusco, and now SAMIDRC, to keep the peace and let the humanitarian aid efforts continue, while the UN brings the various parties to the table; state and non-state actors, for a proper and thorough resolution of a crisis that has festered for decades.

To ensure that our soldiers did not die in vain, we need to use this tragedy as a catalyst to finally bring peace about, but to do that will mean that we cannot lessen our resolve on the ground.

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That is the price of peacekeeping and it is high time that we as a country understand that,as well as the vital role that our national defence force plays in this regard. We need to rally behind our national defence force as a country.