There's a lack of realistic expectations regarding what SA pledged and what the SANDF can achieve in DRC - analyst

There's growing criticism about our ability to help bring stability to conflict-ridden countries where South African National Defence Force (SANDF) members have been deployed on the continent.

Feb 16, 2024 - 17:34

There's a lack of realistic expectations regarding what SA pledged and what the SANDF can achieve in DRC - analyst

FILE: People gather next to some vehicles from the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) as part of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Mission as they flee the Masisi territory following clashes between M23 rebels and government forces, at a road near Sake on 7 February 2024. South Africa said on 15 February 2024 that two of its soldiers had been killed by mortar fire in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the first fatalities since it deploying there. Picture: Aubin

CAPE TOWN - As South Africa sends more troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), there is a suggestion that the country needs to be realistic about the deployment due to concerns about lack of resources.

There's growing criticism about our ability to help bring stability to conflict-ridden countries where South African National Defence Force (SANDF) members have been deployed on the continent.

This week two South African soldiers were killed and three wounded by a mortar bomb that landed inside a military base in Goma.

The Institute for Security Studies' Piers Pigou said there was a lack of realistic expectations regarding what South Africa had pledged and what the SANDF could actually achieve.

"There appears to be increasingly a dissonance between what political commitments are made by our political leaders and the actual capacities on the ground to be able to deliver."

Pigou said SANDF troops may also face deeply entrenched ideological warfare that they may not be prepared for while combating rebels and insurgents.

"The relationship between local insurgency and the external forces of Islamic State, for example, who are present in both the conflicts in the Congo and Mozambique are issues we should not ignore. These are about loacl dynamics, essentially, but you've got an external agency truyig to saddle these insurgencies for their own ideological purposes."