The Democratic Alliance (DA) has criticised President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to deploy 2 900 South African National Defence Force (SANDF) members to the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), calling the move reckless and irrational and urging an immediate reversal.

In fulfilling South Africa’s international obligation towards the Southern African Development Community (SADC) mission to support the DRC, Ramaphosa ordered the deployment of 2 900 members of the SANDF to assist in the fight against illegal armed groups in the eastern DRC, between December 15, 2023 and December 15, 2024.

DA Shadow Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Kobus Marais said Ramaphosa ignored several warnings from military experts against the deployment.

“Of particular concern is that Ramaphosa decided to authorise the deployment without timeously informing Parliament of his intentions, as required by the Constitution. Parliament’s defence committees have not been officially alerted of this deployment, only becoming aware of it through the media,” said Marais.

He claimed that by refusing to be transparent, Ramaphosa could be “hiding the real reasons” why he authorised the deployment – “reasons that may have nothing to do with South Africa’s national security”.

The Presidency highlighted that the budgeted expenditure to be incurred for the deployment amounts to just over R2-billion. This expenditure will not impact provisions for the defence force’s regular maintenance and emergency repairs.

Marais noted that besides the human lives that are at risk, the idea that R2-billion would be spent on this deployment was “simply ridiculous”.

“That money could have been better spent on upgrading the SANDF’s prime mission equipment and improving the logistical capacity of the military value chain. We simply cannot be weakening South Africa’s defence capabilities at home to fight a war that has no strategic value to our country,” he highlighted.

Marais said the SANDF did not have the capacity to effectively pursue an anti-insurgency campaign against M23 rebels, or the prime mission equipment to support ground forces.

“Regardless of whether the deployment will be in phases or all at once, the foreign deployment of 2 900 troops is easily one of the largest in South Africa’s democratic era. It is, therefore, utter madness to deploy a force of that size with inadequate or no air support,” he said.

He explained that without proper air cover, as well as transport and air elements, the SANDF troops would find it difficult to operate effectively in the eastern DRC, which he said was a complex and hostile terrain.

“With this impulsive deployment, Ramaphosa has not learnt any lessons and is repeating the same mistakes as with previous combat missions in Bangui, Cabo Delgado and most recently in the DRC itself – where our troops came under fire resulting in the unnecessary loss of life. There is a high chance that the M23 rebels, using their familiarity with the territory, will resort to tactical ambushes of the SANDF to inflict maximum harm on our troops,” Marais said.

He said government should rather prioritise the capacitation and deployment of the SANDF to improve border surveillance on land and at sea.

He added that foreign deployments should only be made when there was clear evidence that events outside the country’s borders posed an immediate and direct threat to South Africa’s national security.

The conflict in the eastern DRC did not fall in that category, he said.