The
phased
withdrawal
of
SA
National
Defence
Force
(SANDF)
soldiers
in
the
DRC,
which
followed
the
death
of
14
of
its
soldiers
killed
during
the
Rwanda-backed
M23
rebel
offensive
on
Goma
in
January,
has
brought
into
sharp
relief
the
logistical
challenges
that
the
SANDF
faces.
The
SANDF
has also
recently
withdrawn
its
troops
from
northern
Mozambique,
where it
was
deployed
as part
of the
SADC
Mission
to
combat
the
extremist
insurgency
in Cabo
Delgado.
The
reality
is that
the
SANDF
struggles
to meet
its
obligations
in
peacekeeping
missions
due to
logistical
constraints
and
insufficient
resources.
Declining
military
budgets,
mismanagement,
the lack
of
modernisation
and
governance
issues
within
state-owned
enterprises
such as
Denel,
have
compromised
the
SANDF’s
readiness
to
respond
to
emerging
security
threats.
Members
of
the
SANDF
apprehend
a
mother
and
her
child
using
an
illigal
route into
South
Africa
during
a
patrol
on
the
border
of
Zimbabwe,
in
November
2024.
Photo
by
Zinyange
Auntony
/
AFP
The
upshot
of this
is that
South
Africa
now
faces
the
difficult
choice
of
either
increasing
investment
in its
military
or
scaling
back
international
commitments
to focus
on
domestic
security.
GGA
peace
and
security
researcher
Leleti
Maluleke
explores
this
subject
comprehensively
in her
Mail
&
Guardian
article
published
last
week.
This was
followed
by a Cape
Talk
radio
discussion
on
Monday
between
Clarence
Ford and
GGA’s
Head of
Programme
for
Peace
and
Security,
Stephen
Buchanan-Clarke.
Buchanan-Clarke
points
out that
it
remains
South
Africa’s
responsibility
to
contribute
to
regional
peace,
but as
it
stands,
the
SANDF is
so
diversely
deployed
– from
border
protection
to
fighting
zama
zamas –
that it
has
become a
“jack of
all
trades
and
master
of
none”.
“The
SANDF
needs
strategic
reprioritisation…
We need
to focus
on what
we’re
good at,
and
allocate
resources
and
capacity
to
that,”
he
said.
On
the
global
stage,
meanwhile,
South
Africa
has
drawn
huge
attention
with
the
expulsion
of
South
African
US
ambassador,
Ebrahim
Rasool,
a
topic
I
discussed
on
ENCA
this
week.
Essentially,
my
point
is
that
South
Africa
is
going
to
have
to
take
a
cold,
hard
look
at
itself
in
respect
of
consistently
advancing
our
national
interests
in
a
new,
geopolitically
fractured
world.
These
interests
have
not
been
well
served
by
our
military
and
economic
relations
with
China
and
Russia,
the
ANC’s
welcoming
of
Iran,
and
our
case
against
Israel
at
the
International
Court
of
Justice.
