One of the many aspirations expressed in the defence review of 2015 is that our army should be seen as having gravitas inside and outside the country. Every day, however, we are reminded how elusive this is proving to be.
In his excellent reporting, Tom Gould, our correspondent in Mozambique, has exposed the shameful state of the regional military mission in Mozambique. SA forms the core of the Southern African Development Community Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM). Since 2021, SA has had troops deployed to help the Mozambican army thwart Islamic State (IS) insurgents in the Cabo Delgado province, where thousands of people have been displaced from their homes and economic activity, including foreign investment, has been disrupted.
Our troops have been ineffectual in defeating the Mozambican franchise of IS. In a telling paragraph, Gould writes: “Already, the Rwandans appear to have seen more battlefield results than SA did in its two-year intervention. The Cabo Ligado project, which monitors the conflict, has reported large westward movements of insurgents away from their strongholds on the coast.”
The reason for our troops’ modest success is simple. The Rwandans, who are also fighting a war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), have better military equipment than the Sadc mission. On the other hand, the Sadc mission in Mozambique is poorly funded, with many countries in arrears.
Since coming to power in 1994, after the genocide that claimed nearly 1-million lives of Tutsis and Hutu moderates in Rwanda, Paul Kagame has prioritised the security and stability of his small country. A well-trained, well-resourced, Western-supported army has been a key lever to achieve his nation’s security alongside internal repression of political opponents.
Unlike in Mozambique, where Rwanda is fighting on the same side as SA, Kigali is supporting the M23 rebels in the DRC. This pits it directly against SA, which has already lost dozens of troops who lack basic air cover.
The disclosures of SA’s limited successes in Mozambique are an inconvenient truth to Sadc capitals, including Pretoria. The families of the troops deployed there, with little military hardware, will be angered by the prospects of their sons returning in body bags.
Before the May elections, SA’s opposition parties were calling for the withdrawal of our mission in Mozambique. These calls are likely to be revived now that evidence of limited success is growing.
It is hard to imagine that SA, Africa’s largest economy and superpower, could completely retrench its military involvement in other African countries. In fact, that would not only be a myopic move, it would be a gross act of recklessness. After all, SA owes its success to the blood and sweat of labour from its neighbours.
Also, conflicts from other countries have a tendency to evolve into regional wars that spill over other countries’ borders. Already, SA is feeling the effects of an unstable continent.
A far more responsible posture would be for the government of national unity to lean on the National Treasury to stop the budget cuts of the defence force, especially in maintenance of military hardware. This will help us fulfil our regional and continental obligations.
In the long term, however, the modernisation of our military equipment is inevitable. Only that will restore the gravitas of our defence force.
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