Leader of South African political party – EFF, Julius Malema, has broached an important subject: the state of preparedness and mechanization of the SADC military.
I have watched the videos of SADC soldiers and I was shocked to see the state of disrepair and low morale of the soldiers.
There was very little appetite to fight or face M-23. In fact, the DRC militia looked more enthusiastic than our own soldiers, leading me to explore a question: do we have a moral ground to meddle in a conflict that is not ours.
This discourse attempts to answer just that question.
Julius Malema has done us justice when he questioned why ill-equipped South African soldiers were sent to the DRC in the first place and he recommended that either they are well equipped or they are returned back home.
He also ruled that M-23 were not economic freedom fighters like his political entity EFF but were determined to loot the minerals of the DRC. Therefore, M-23 should be rooted out.
But Malema misses the gist fueling the DRC conflict is a post colonial constitution that was mirrored with the colonial one.
A highly centralised government stationed in Kinshasa completely delinked from the rest of the country.
What SADC missed was correct diagnosis of the DRC predicament that it is a political problem that requires political solution.
A military solution to a political problem never works. It can freeze a conflict like the one in the Korean Peninsular and what is being envisaged in Eastern Ukraine but is not gonna address the core issues sparking the conflict.
Instead of dispatching rugged armies to confront a political problem with machine guns, SADC would have done themselves justice inviting all sides to a conflict and scout for a political solution.
Modernity demand devolution and decentralisation which Kinshasa ought to agree. Claims of M-23 are looters of natural resources flies in the face of absolving Kinshasa from the same crimes. Since independence, Kinshasa has been looting DRC from the independence day. Blaming M-23 alone misses larger issues at play.
What I have seen SADC military is not provided with the tools needed to accost a well trained, disciplined and nourished M-23 army. Casualties of SADC soldiers are beginning to mount and felt.
Unless the conflict subsides we should expect their fallen warriors to grow exponentially.
I saw the military trucks and other contraptions that had seen better days, and now they should have been confined into museums.
Where is the modernization of the SADC military?
As the Ukrainian conflict has abundantly show, technical input is shaping modern wars in the era of Information Age.
I saw SADC soldiers climbing higher ground to have a better view of their enemies. That is absurd! Modern wars armed with satellites and thermal drones have reshaped how modern wars are being fought. SADC have numbers but once the fallen heroes are known domestic support will wane rapidly.
The decision to take soldiers in conflicts which have nothing to do with us ridicules us in profound ways.
The beneficiaries of exploitation of DRC natural resources do not bear the consequences of defending her. So, the question we need to ask ourselves is: what is for us in the DRC?
Under the umbrella of SADC, we are displaying and embracing our colonial roles of defenders of non African economic interests in our own backyards! Countries that are milking the DRC dry never bear the brunt of the bloodshed.
They keep doing what they do best; fleecing Africa of her natural wealth while turning Africans against themselves.
The only reason we can aid the DRC is forging a sense of national unity that is only possible through negotiations among warring sides.
Congolese have been looting embassies of countries they blame stoking the conflict.
While French embassy was looted and a more fortified US embassy was heckled with fireballs but Uganda, Rwanda and Kenyan embassies were looted too. Ironically, the US embass alone
had DRC police guarding it from the outside while those of SADC didn’t have that kind of domestic security. The message is clear; back out.
Congolese prefer to deal with their issues internally but the truth is on their own the power of the barrel will settle the conflict one way or the other.
Such a scenario can only freeze the conflict to allow the defeated side to rebuild in order to fight another day.
UN peacekeepers have been caught red-hand pilfering Congolese minerals. A drone had technical malfunctioning and it fell then what was parcelled in it brought the truth to the world.
The UN peacekeepers are not designed to stop wars and hence should also leave.
M-23 have been targeting them for assassination and given the light firearms in the hands of the peacekeepers it is better they are returned home where they came from.
Having them in the DRC is akin of committing suicide. They are in mince meat grinder. They will be killed for no reason at all.
Peacekeepers make sense when warring sides have an incentive to hold peace, a situation not feasible in the Congolese circumstances.
The JWTZ, I happened to watch in the YouTube inside the DRC as part of SADC peace keeping mission leaves an impression they are still living the ages of the Ugandan war.
Nothing I saw resemble military readiness to cope with the challenges of modern wars. Trucks and other equipment are worn out, and travel at snail speed not supported by air power.
No planes or choppers to protect boots on the ground as a result they are vulnerable from rocket attacks of M-23. That is what is killing our soldiers more than the gun exchanges in urban dwellings.
I may not subscribe to reasons of SADC forces being in the DRC with Julius Malema but I concur with him for whatever reason they are there at a minimum they deserve to be well equipped, if not they should be disbanded and head home sweet home.
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