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Volume 12, No. 12, 4 April 2013 |
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Red Alert BRICS: A qualitatively new development and a site of struggle(s) |
By Blade Nzimande, General Secretary
The holding of the fifth Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) Summit in South Africa for the first time, on 26-27 March 2013, was indeed an important moment in our country’s long history of international work and international solidarity. I am deliberately saying a long history precisely because the international work of our movement goes back to the founding of especially both the ANC and the SACP. Ironically and most importantly, it was during the era of the isolation of the apartheid regime, that our internationalist work deepened and reached new heights, thus placing South Africa, through its national liberation movement, as an important component of anti-imperialist and progressive forces in the world.
It is important to locate both the history of South Africa’s ‘diplomacy’ and that of our participation in BRICS within this historical context, so that we do not fall into the mistaken notion that our progressive internationalist and diplomatic work only started in 1994. In fact, as we commemorate the 20th anniversary of the passing away of the late President of the ANC, Cde Oliver Tambo this month, we should also be recognizing Cde OR as perhaps, more than anybody else, South Africa’s premier diplomat and leading internationalist, for the role he played in the isolation of the apartheid regime and forging the extensive international relations of our liberation movement.
Our own SACP played a pivotal role in forging the internationalist agenda of the national liberation movement as a whole, with someone like our late and longest-serving General Secretary, Cde Moses Kotane (uMalume) playing a leading role, especially in forging relations between our national liberation movement with the then Soviet linked, socialist bloc of countries. In fact the history of the entire anti-apartheid movement still holds important lessons for South Africa and the world today, especially in the struggles for an alternative and just global world order. It is also within this strategic framework and lessons that we should locate our approach to BRICS.
The formation of BRICS is perhaps one of the most important developments since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. It is an attempt not to forge a hegemonic or sub-imperialist bloc, but to exploit the shifting (economic) global balance of forces in favour of the developing world. It is for this reason that BRICS is an important, qualitatively new development, that as the SACP we need to engage with closely. It is a development we dare not be dismissive, infantile or oppositionist about as it is an important site of struggle, for a better world. It is not a given that BRICS will inherently play a progressive role, but it is something that has to be struggled for, as it has a huge potential to play such a role. For instance imperialism will not leave BRICS alone, especially because of its potential threat in further shifting the global (economic) balance of forces.
The BRICS countries combined have 42% of the global population; 20% of the world’s GDP; 15% of trade volume; 75% of foreign reserves (estimated at about USDollar 4,5 trillion). The combined contribution of BRICS countries to global growth is estimated at around 50% and is said to be increasing. These are important resources which, used properly, can further shift the economic balance of forces further towards the developing world.
BRICS talks to, and relates, to many of the themes of the SACP Programme, the South African Road to Socialism (SARS). Our approach to BRICS must be informed by the fact that as communists, together with our Allies, we must take responsibility for the national democratic revolution in all its sites and fronts of struggle. To do this we need to participate in taking our revolution forward both from inside and outside the state. It practically means participating in BRICS as part of government, and also embarking on mass mobilization and building internationalist consciousness amongst our people. It is for this reason also that it is important that trade unions in the BRICS countries take an active interest in forging a progressive BRICS agenda. We therefore welcome the initiative by COSATU to host a BRICS trade union meeting and state its positions on a number of things that were on the agenda of BRICS.
The BRICS development also relates to the internationalist work and tasks of the SACP, especially as directed by our SARS. SARS starts by locating the significance of the dynamism in the economies of BRICS countries like Brazil, India and China and the potential for these to be partially delinked from global capital, especially from its current crises. At the same time SARS warns that "none (of these countries) will escape its impact. China, with its US oriented, export-led growth strategy will face very serious challenges".
SARS also specifically links the developments in some of the BRICS countries to the task of taking forward the African revolution. SARS starts by outlining the challenge facing our continent:
"The SACP has a particular interest in (and responsibility for) the continent in which we are located, and particularly our region Southern Africa. Africa continues to be the most brutally oppressed region of the world… Millions of Africans have been rendered landless, and millions are without employment. In many African countries life-expectancy rates are amongst the lowest in the world, while infantile mortality is amongst the highest".
Our SARS Programme further notes but also problematizes the sustainability of the current high growth rates in Africa, warning that these are from a very low base, and they may have been linked to the commodities boom arising from demand from some of the BRICS countries. The challenge, as identified in our SARS, is that of sustainable African development and more sustained linkages with BRICS. The Fifth BRICS Summit placed African development at the centre of its discussions and resolutions. However in order to ensure that this focus is not only just for that Summit, the perspectives contained in our SARS are helpful in ensuring a dynamic, sustainable, ongoing and mutually beneficial relationship between Africa and BRICS.
Discussions and issues inside BRICS also touch on very important matters regarding the transformation of global financial relations. The proposed establishment of a BRICS Bank is something that we need to engage with very closely as the SACP. The Bretton Woods institutions like the IMF and the World Bank, have been major instruments for the maintenance and reproduction of imperialism and a neo-colonial, neo-liberal world order, especially since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The establishment of a BRICS bank is something that should be supported, and for this bank must seek to catalyse new financial relations between the developed and developing world. Our approach as the SACP must be that such a bank must in the medium to long term be seen as one of those institutions that should break the imperialist logic of international financing organisations. This is what must be struggled for. Such a potentially new developmental trajectory must also inform our own national banking and other financial institutions, thus linking the idea of a BRICS development bank to our own financial sector campaign.
The Fifth BRICS Summit also emphasized the necessity to find new resources and alternative ways of dynamising the BRICS economies and those of Africa and the rest of the developing world. This is indeed a very important commitment that has the potential to deepen the delinking (or decoupling as our SARS says) of the BRICS and developing economies from the current global capitalist crisis. The discussions at the Summit also underlined the importance of ‘internal’ trade amongst the BRICS countries, including the exploration of using the currencies of the BRICS countries as the basis of such ‘internal’ trade. These are important initiatives and sites of struggle to weaken the imperialist hold over the global economy.
It is also going to be important for the SACP to proactively intensify engagements with the BRICS Communist Parties around the potential of this platform to contribute towards our anti-imperialist agenda. Incidentally all the BRICS countries have fairly large and/or influential communist parties. In China, the Communist Party is the ruling Party; in Russia it is a former ruling party and is currently the largest opposition party in that country; in Brazil one of its two communist parties is in alliance and in government with Brazil PT ruling party; India has got relatively large Communist Parties that have been in an out of power in some of the Indian States. The SACP has had fairly good and close relations with all these parties. This relationship must be used to engage on BRICS. It is therefore going to be important for all our structures to have systematic discussions on BRICS as part our discussion on our international work and tasks.
It is also going to be very important that we consistently seek to place BRICS in the public agenda as much as is possible, including using alternative media platforms. Already bourgeois mainstream media in South Africa, and unfortunately also parts of the public broadcaster, have sought to use the tragic death of our soldiers in the Central African Republic to try and defocus completely on reflecting on the outcomes of the BRICS Summit last week. Indeed this has been the agenda of the opposition to try and take away the significance of the BRICS Summit as one of the important achievements of the Zuma-led administration.
Other important achievements of the Fifth BRICS Summit were the holding of a BRICS Academic Forum and resolution to launch a BRICS Think Tank. This will require that South Africa form its own permanent BRICS Academic Forum and Think Tank. These are going to be very important platforms in the broader battle of ideas, and the SACP must seek to engage in these fora and platforms on an ongoing basis.
Doing all these things is absolutely necessary and it is part of the SACP taking responsibility for our national democratic revolution. We must not be spectators in our revolution, or selectively choose, often opportunistically, when to be part or not of our national democratic revolution. Whilst we should always maintain the independence of our Party, but we are not independent from, instead we are part of, our national democratic revolution.
Communist cadres to the front, in all key sites of struggle and power!
Asikhulume!!
On Cronin vs. Jim: A Reply to David Masondo
By Walter Mothapo
Context
An interesting debate has arisen, triggered by comrade Jeremy Cronin’s open letter to comrade Irvin Jim. Now this was a not an ordinary "open letter" because it was written by the First Deputy General Secretary of the SACP to the General Secretary of the second biggest affiliate of COSATU, NUMSA. As one could have imagined indeed comrade Jim responded in kind. A friend of mine once remarked that he always gets anxious when someone says, "I need to talk to you". He says the irony of it is that "they are already talking to you" but what they actually mean is that ‘they want to reprimand you on something". It’s just like one beginning a sentence by saying "with due respect", then you must know there is something coming your way that is not "respectful". So the essence about "open letters" is that that their openness means that the recipients must often brace themselves for something unpalatable coming their way.
The whole "open letter" saga between the two prolific leaders of the working class movement was this time around given a little bit of drama and "spice" when Floyd Shivambu entered the fray. He penned an article in response to comrade Cronin’s letter apparently with an intention to among others settle old personal and political scores with him. Well I am not taking away the fact that he advanced his own perspectives about nationalisation that by now we are accustomed too. But his personal attack on Comrade Jeremy reminded me of events leading to the highly charged elective Conference of the ANC in 2007, when comrade Kgalema Motlanthe was asked by a journalist; "why Mbeki could not defend himself against accusations that he was dividing the party?" His response was that when you occupy a leadership position sometimes you don’t have to wrestle with every member of the organisation because "some of them are a little bit stronger and they can break your leg".
Part of my take on this wide-ranging debate that has comrade David Masondo as its latest entrant would be to deal with three dimensions in our struggle as follows:
1. Trade Unions and Capitalism
I move from the premise that trade unions are a product of capitalism. Workers mainly organise themselves into trade unions with a view of protecting their interests under a brutal and exploitative capitalist system. But the question is what kind of trade unions would be formed under capitalism, will they be reformist, revolutionary or reactionary. This is because workers are not always a progressive homogenous force, as comrade Masondo would like us to believe. There is an organised proletariat mobilised under a revolutionary trade union such as NUM and there would be a reformist and reactionary union meant to safeguard interests of bosses such as Amcu, Solidarity Union and the list goes on.
That is why even in the apartheid era the government did not have much qualms about allowing trade union activity because they knew there would be several who are sympathetic to the regime and even defend its interests. The same notion exists even now where you find that Solidarity Union has clubbed with AfriForum to fight reforms at workplace such as Employment Equity, Affirmative Action and BEE which is part of their defence of white minority interests. But when a trade union adopts a revolutionary stance as most COSATU unions have become then they could be regarded as schools of Marxism.
I want to impress upon comrade Masondo that capital does not sit and paint nails when the progressive trade union movement entrenches itself and becomes a factor in the struggle to overthrow capitalism. Part of the response of capital would be to plant seeds of divisions within the organised working class through establishing and sponsoring new unions that will organise and mobilise in a violent way and also capitalising on the weaknesses of established unions. It is against this backdrop that I reckon it is a bit reckless of Masondo to accuse Cronin of "pitting workers against each other". Because the question could arise, which workers are being "pit against each other", progressive or reactionary? Indeed the state violence against workers anywhere should be condemned but this doesn’t excuse or abolish the fact that AMCU is capital and management sponsored. Where else have you seen workers being compensated with bonuses in order to encourage them to end the strike?
2. Communists and the state
The South African Road to Socialism (SARS) correctly identifies the state as the terrain of the struggle. The state represents an embodiment of the highest concentration of power. Indeed as communists we regard the state as a contested terrain as Masondo correctly points out.
In dealing with the role of communists in and outside the state I would like emphasise what comrade Jim pointed out earlier. He correctly quotes from the Communist Manifesto, which asserts that:
"The Communists are distinguished from the other working-class parties by this only: 1. In the national struggles of the proletarians of the different countries, they point out and bring to the front the common interests of the entire proletariat, independently of all nationality. 2. In the various stages of development which the struggle of the working class against the bourgeoisie has to pass through, they always and everywhere represent the interests of the movement as a whole". The Communist Manifesto (1848),
The communist manifesto enjoins communists to always act in favour of the working class. In order to do this they must not subscribe to dogma. They must be capable of analysing the environment they are operating within and advance correct strategy and tactics. This leads me to the whole brouhaha about the National Development Plan, as if the plan itself is going to be a silver bullet to end the country’s socio-economic woes. The post 1994 state has come up with quite a number of prolific policies compared to those that remain in question or in doubt. What has been missing has been action to implement those dynamic policies. Take the Mining Charter for an example, which was heralded upon its conception by all stakeholders that it will take transformation in the mining industry to a higher level, what happened to it? Why is the mining industry even regressing further now? Is it simply because mines are not nationalized?
The debate on how revolutionary or reactionary the NDP is will only be complete if it is coupled with a discussion on the "bureaucratic capacity of the Post 1994 democratic state to deliver on its mandate". If we take a leaf out of the Limpopo province where comrade Masondo serves as an MEC for Treasury, questions can be asked what has been the role of communists in fighting corruption that has been so endemic in the province to ensure that limited state resources are used to benefit the working class. What has been the role of communists in ensuring that we have a functional health and educational systems that is an essential feature of a socialist state as we envisage it? What can we do within our realm as the leadership of the working class in government to begin laying the building blocks of socialism? What should be the revolutionary conduct and ethics of communists when we they are entrusted with positions of authority? So many questions!
3. Democracy and Socialism
The 1995 congress of the SACP held in "Shaft 17" had a dynamic theme entitled, "Advance Deepen and Defend the Democratic Breakthrough". This theme was point-on as it had the realisation that in 1994 we achieved a breakthrough that creates a democratic set up to advance the struggle for socialism. This was in line with what Joe Slovo wrote in 1988 about the dialectical link between the national and class struggles. He famously asserted that there is no dichotomy between the struggle for democracy and socialism by illustrating the ‘national content of the class struggle and the class content of the national struggle". Socialism, to borrow from comrade Vavi’s rhetoric is not going to "come with drum majorettes beating drums announcing it". I contend that communists who occupy senior positions in government cannot be "fellow travellers" and abdicate their responsibilities to the capitalist nature of the state when they fail in their revolutionary responsibilities. The Communist Manifesto as cited earlier enjoins us to advance ‘the interest of the working class at any stage of the revolution" and I must add in all sites of the struggle including the state.
Peroration
A lot of these debates, which are often characterised by "labeling and name calling", can be traced down to our failure to engage openly within the structures of the Alliance and the progressive democratic movement as a whole. This is coupled with our failure to operationalize a plethora of progressive policies that already exist in order to transform the state to live up to the revolutionary objectives of our movement. Intellectual polemics are important in a struggle but in themselves will not assist us in denting the socio-economic conditions of the majority of the working class to the better. Indeed philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways the point though is to change!
Walter Mothapo is a member of the Provincial Executive Committee of the SACP in the Limpopo province. These are his personal views.
Tribute to our gallant soldiers who fought undefeatted at a brave battle of Bangui in the Central African Republic
By Solly Mapaila, SACP 2nd Deputy General Secretary
Heroism, valour and honour are virtues associated with warriors and militant soldiers fighting for a good cause. These befit the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) soldiers of 1 Parachute Battalion. Indeed, one can safely say joining the militaryis a calling to serve and not a mere job. One is prepared to serve and even die for his people and country by a simple step of consciously joining the military.
SA lost thirteen of its bravest soldiers, from the 1 parachute battalion, who fought gallantly in a battle lasting over twelve hours against a marauding Central African Republic’s Seleka rebel force, with Chadian forces and rebelled CAR defence force, almost over thirty times its size, and yet came out undefeated, more spirited and still raising our flag high. May their fighting spirit live on and inspire those who remain to keep serving their country and people. It is worth noting as explained by their fighting commander Major Stephen Jiyane, the unit came under an ambush, after conducting a reconnaissance mission and where on the way to their base and “they fought ferociously like lions and demonstrated excellent military strength”
An ambush is military trap of the enemy force and is one of the most difficult military procedure to perform and perfect and when it is perfected by the executioner it becomes the most difficult to survive by the target. It is based on the primary element of surprise executed in perfect combination of speed and precision coupled with perfect timing.
Although it remains a military tactic of war, it is a method most preferred by guerilla movements and insurgents forces against conventional forces and is mostly used by coward commanders who fear open military confrontation that uses military prowess and tactics.
In fact, in recorded history of war few military units have survived an ambush and live to tell the story. One such instance is an Umkhonto we Sizwe unit that not only repelled and survived an ambush from the notorious UNITA bandits rebel forces in Angola, but turned that ambush into a battle that they ultimately won. Like these fighting “lions” of One Parachute Battalion, they were ambushed and repelled the ambush and actually never lost that battle as the rebels flew a white cloth for ceasefire after twelve hours of a ferocious exchange of fire, a real war.
They were surrounded and were doomed for annihilation by military fire, they knew their fate was sealed at that point and had to either all perish or save some of their own. This is soldierly. They didn’t disappoint. They fulfilled their pledge like true soldiers, to fight to the bitter end when necessary and in this case it was really very necessary, we salute them for this bravery and for keeping the army oath, no retreat no surrender and to die fighting against the enemy, and for the motherland.
It is reported that over 700 of the Seleka forces were killed or injured, by a small SANDF unit of a section not even a full platoon or a company. This was a reflection of the superior fighting power of our soldiers.
Accordingly, our President paid a befitting tribute to these warriors at a memorial service held in Tshwane’s Swartkop Air Force Base on April 02, 2013 and acclaimed that, “though it may seem they were outnumbered, they were able to hold their own in a battle that lasted over nine hours, and as South Africans we should be truly proud of these soldiers…. They died for a worthy cause. They died in defence of the country’s foreign policy. They dies defending our commitment to the renewal of the African continent and the promotion of peace and stability”
Weekend reports from the major newspapers quoted some of the surviving soldiers and some military ‘experts’ to the extent that our soldiers under fire were blamed for allegedly “killing kids”, in reference to the child soldiers – a common phenomena with African rebel movements.
At that point they could not detect whether they were children or not but had to respond to fire with fire to protect themselves, otherwise they would all be killed by these “children”. A firearm doesn’t discriminate against its targets whether it is fired from a considered child or adult, more ludicrous is the intention to dismiss that these are trained soldiers, children as they maybe, they know the military drills, they are mostly fed drugs to dissipate the fear and infuse excitement in war and the use of lethal force and they kill.
It is implied that our soldiers should have stood idle against the veracious AK47 fire? This is absolute lunacy and sheer emptiness on military matters. The right to self-defense is paramount to protect the inalienable right to life as in our bill of rights subsection 11.
This doesn’t mean civilians can’t raise concerns on military matters, but they can’t interfere in military operations and strategy of operations, even in a democracy it is none of their business. On the contrary ours is based on civilian oversight without interference on military operations. This is the line the opposition blurs deliberately in order to create a space to accord blame and hurl insults on the Commander in Chief of our Armed forces, the President Jacob Zuma
The rowdy adversarial opposition has once again misled and enjoyed dividing our country in the name of opposition politics. Worst of all is the man who was in charge of Defence when this mission was initially finalized. He is a hollow mind who cannot face his own actions, what a pity for petty opposition politics.
This hostile attack on the SANDF from the home front is very mischievous, partisan, preposterous, completely mis-placed and actually very sickening. If the mission was to help a multinational force under the imperial domination of the UN and the NATO there would be no such screams, but the mission was for Africa and so it is not worth it, shame!
Yes shame to the opposition parties who have insulted with impunity the government decision to deploy forces in the CAR for peace and stability in accordance with the AU Peace and Security commission and mandate.
South African internationalist missions
By internationalist missions we denote humanitarian duties whose benefit go beyond our own narrow national confines and interests, espouses commitment to human values and upliftment. In fact doing humanitarian duty abroad should be seen in the context of fulfilling the humanitarian principles and values of peace, liberty, and freedom for all. There is no cost attached to these principles. To achieve them is not just our utopia but also a living aspiration.
Many internationalist have showed by example this commitment and died for peace and freedom, the most well known in recent times perhaps is the legendary communist revolutionary, the Argentinian and Cuban internationalist guerilla Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara de la Serna who fought in Cuba, in Zaire and Bolivia where he fell and had helped many revolutions in Algeria, Panama and others to fulfill their missions of the fight for democracy and freedom.
Cuban internationalists fought against apartheid regime in Angola and lost over 280 of military and support personnel fighting for the liberation of Angola, Namibia and South Africa. Other Cuban internationalist fighters participated in the Congo Brazzaville for humanitarian principles. We should be careful in our debates not to dismiss internationalist work and the direction our army was shaping in this regard, to serve humanity and to amass internationalist character and experience. We should resuscitate internationalism as a core value of humanity in our country.
SA Internationalist missions
Democratic South Africa has been involved in many and varied internationalist missions on the continent and beyond for peace keeping and protecting civilian lives in war torn areas. These included the famous shuttle diplomacy in the Atlantic Ocean off the DRC to negotiate peaceful transition after Laurent Kabila entered Kinshasa. Again, we have been involved in the Democratic Republic of the Congo deploying troops as part of the AU and UN peace keeping contingent, the Sudan covering Western Darfur region and South Sudan, in Burundi, Lesotho, in the Antarctica for scientific expedition and rescue missions of expeditionary including non-South Africans, we helped the Tsunami victims in Indonesia, the earthquake victims in Haiti, and rescued Mozambican people during the floods that devastated their country etc.
For our good, most of these missions were executed successfully without loss of lives at least at the magnitude we have suffered now in the Battle of Bangui in the CAR but came albeit at a great courage and costs.
Whilst we should always remember that loss of lives in such situation is sometimes unavoidable like during the ambush in the CAR, we should do all we can to avoid it. This responsibility lies with the operational military command and to say so is not to shirk political responsibility or even justify such losses.
Principle seven of war is called flexibility. It is critical under any circumstance of war to always invoke this principle in order to protect the lives of the combatants, the mission and the flag. When an operation is in place to make further reinforcements when lives of our soldiers are in danger we do not need the President to do so but invoke principle seven within the capable limits to do everything possible to avoid loss of lives and losing strategic military positioning.
CORE PRINCIPLES OF A DEFENCE FORCE
It is important to also note that whilst we can jostle around what should have or not have been done in the CAR mission we need to consider few things about the defence force.
- The basic notion in defence is the concept of command and control, comply and complain later according to the military channels. This basis is the basic foundation of any successful army. Its enduring anchor is discipline. No army without discipline can ever win a battle let alone a war. Any trained soldier no matter how brave and well trained they are can tell you it is not easy to go to the frontline for war. Without complying with the command, soldiers would not be deployable to the battlefield. “The defence force must be structured and managed as a disciplined military force” Act 108 of 1996 SS 200 (1) the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.
- Who can go to war voluntarily? War is not a child’s play like the petty opposition parties want us to believe. War is nie a pap and vleis nie. So stop your pettiness and safe the morale of our defence force from degeneration into ill discipline of troops dragged to serve petty political gossips, unsubstantiated allegations, innuendos and not the constitution.
- Operational orders are the sole terrain of the military command in order to execute its mission accordingly. To disclose military operations and movements to un-authorised people and foreign governments is an act of sabotage, is treasonable, gross ill discipline, treacherous and should be duly punishable. This is not just implied but the conduct of the opposition is in a way a committed exchange and passing of military information to the enemy in the name of openness, democracy and debates. This is the saddest part on their full collusion and cooperation with outside forces to undermine our national security and sovereignty. They attack national security as if it is wrong to have such when actually no single country can exist without one, including their handlers. Like the President said “no country discusses military strategy in public in the manner in which South Africa was expected to do”. This further exposes the hidden agenda of the opposition.
- The deployment of defence force to a foreign country is the function of our democratic government through the constitutional authority vested on the President of the Republic in consultation with parliament.
- The deployment of a defence force or the military from point A to point B is a military operation and is prescribed by operational orders which inter-alia should protect the operation itself, safeguard the interest of military personnel and property and ultimately lay the correct foundation for successful execution of the operational orders. These will, obviously, include application of the relevant legitimate and appropriate, military principles of war including the use of the element of surprise to the enemy, intelligence about the enemy etc. For the opposition to jeopardize the military operations of our army and effectively putting their lives in danger in the name of saving them is tantamount to betrayal of the flag so proudly carried high by our valiant soldiers.
- Soldiers are trained for war; to fight with firearms, in order to defend the national sovereignty, secure borders and citizens of their motherland. This mission can be expanded to protect legitimate states under attack by undue means of force and power; protection of the civilian population that is most vulnerable during wars, and protect humanitarian heritage sites as designated by the United Nations Heritage Council and various National Heritage Councils.
So what was the CAR mission about?
Under the auspices of the African Union Peace and Security Commission the deployment of African soldiers in different parts of the continent is authorized to promote peace and stability. In pursuant of this objective South Africa complied and entered into an agreement to help with the training of the CAR forces that were unable to deal with the multiple problems of different borders and tensions coming through those ports of entries. Our mission was clearly explained to train the CAR forces to create peace and stability and to control its borders covering six other countries.
When the situation changes because of internal conflicts and deteriorated to the recent times in the CAR particularly since December 2012, an army of South Africa’s abilities is not simply scared or just run away, more so the government of the day was still in place. But when our own where endangered, it was our duty to go in and protect them and to protect army material and property. If those soldiers were not ambushed we could not be talking the way we do in this country. They did not run away and we now know our army will not run away and this is important for the security of the country, we have an army.
It is said by the information peddlers that the mission was only business oriented because they rejected SA’s interventions for peace on the continent that anchored on the renewal of the continent without the involvement of the European colonisers, who to this day continue to control many African states, such as France in particular, Britain and others.
SA has the ability to make a huge contribution to the development of Africa without getting anything in return except for peace, stability and development for African people on the continent.
Given the levels of underdevelopment and the caste of the continent by the European powers and the neo-colonial control post independence on the African continent South Africa is strategically placed to discharge this mandate on behalf of the continent, we remain the critical factor and the most viable possibility for Africa to resolve its own problems without relying on the colonisers who have embedded interests, colonial, neo-colonial and all. For these we should not waiver.
In recent months we have witnessed France repelling the Toureg forces in Mali who have destroyed the Timbuktu monument that depicts African civilization and African countries stood idle unable to intervene until France came to the rescue of the such prestigious African heritage site, and the Malian people cherished that intervention even though their perpetual suffering can dates back to French colonization and capitalism.
This is partly because the African Union has no standing army of its own. To mobilise military interventions always takes time and mainly this has happened under the UN supervision and South Africa has participated in numerous such interventions.
Stop political opportunism in times of national grief
At this time of grief of our lost soldiers and the loved ones, the victims of the rebels, the survivors of the ambush, the entire troops and Command of SANDF needs the optimum solidarity and empathy of all South Africans, not hostility, blame, orchestrated confusion and political opportunism in times of grief. These tendencies and opportunism must stop if we are to build a united country with common values and nationhood.
They need us at this time of loss, they need to know that we care and value their selfless daily disposal to mortal danger for us all to be safe within our peaceful borders.
Our soldiers should know we rely on them to export the peace to other people and countries on the continent within the confines of legality and international law. It will be a sad day in South African when we denounce internationalism, the route that paved the path to our own freedom, including the freedom to criticize and demonise sometimes even without valid reasons or knowledge.
We, indeed, should embrace constructive criticism that should help us to do things better in future and never to repeat the mistakes we had committed. On the contrary the criticism leveled at the state was one sided and not really providing intelligent debates on the necessary requisite discourse on the role of our armed forces in peace time but this opportunity has been lost.
Instead what has come out in recent weeks was a huge attack and disdainful spit on our democracy by those meant to entrench it, as they compete on who mocks it the loudest that indeed our people should see no value in it. Equally what a pity that narrow government and ANC oppositionism has encroached deeply in the marrow of the media space as opposition parties reports and propaganda are churned as gospel truth whilst a legitimate government is so distrusted and frowned upon.
The unintended consequences of these are dire to fathom, as soon the majority of the people will realize the lies fed through the media and the elimination of the value of the opposition parties.
It is common knowledge of the unmatched achievements and success by the ANC led democratic government in this country yet they don’t get proper coverage by the media. Equally, it is common knowledge of the mammoth challenges facing our country, of under development, poverty and in-equality, caused by colonialists and the apartheid capitalism system over three centuries of colonial oppression and misrule of the majority by a minority. These systemic challenges and problems cannot be overcome overnight.
This is not to say the revolution cannot do better. It can better itself and learn from the successful ones.
Exploring the future interventions
Some of the questions that may require in depth analysis in exploring the future interventions for peace and stability on the continent would include amongst others and not limited to:
- What should be the role of our defence force in contributing towards keeping peace and stability on the African continent or anywhere in the world?
- The developmental role of a democratic armed force during peacetime on development, role modeling, training and skills development.
- The future and existing missions on the continent and elsewhere should as a matter of necessity include the options of when the situation deteriorate and put the objects of the mission untenable and the lives of our soldiers in danger, the need for rapid reinforcements including air and intelligence, logistical supplies and support lines etc. Notwithstanding that the lives of soldiers are lived dangerously on a daily basis, particularly in deployment to war zones areas.
- We need to also think about the welfare of soldiers and remunerate them well in consideration of the dangers they face on behalf of the country.
- We need to also think about what contributions can RSA make towards the formation of the African Union standing army. This would in the long term lessen AU and UN over reliance on foreign countries like France and some African countries like South Africa on peacekeeping missions on the African continent.
Besides, we have been the only country without petty economic interests in the countries we have given help. This is important for us and doesn’t take away the fact that we cannot enter into economic agreements with such countries. But like all the other missions we have not come back with bags full of mineral resources stolen by the soldiers but we have come home with bags of our own martyrs.
We should not think of hesitant missions on the continent, military missions by their nature are strategic and can be achieved by medium to long-term interventions. If we enter deep into the continent to entrench democracy, stability and peaceful transitions in these countries we should be prepared to stay for longer.
We should welcome the withdrawal of our forces from the CAR given the situation as discussed in the summit of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) which would allow the ECCAS to take centre stage to facilitate peaceful transition in the CAR.
A big thank you to our soldiers
To the leadership of our armed forces, the command of SANDF; to the foot soldiers of our army, the troops, we are proud of you and say thank you for your continued loyal service to the country and its international mission of a better Africa and the world living in peaceful coexistence with itself and its neighbours.
Thank you to our soldiers for paying the supreme sacrifice for peace and stability in our motherland, Africa, we shall always be indebted to you. Your untimely passing away should help to bring unity of our people and shall indeed help to redefine South African internationalism and to build democracy, peace, freedom and solidarity on our continent.
To Major Stephen Jiyane and the surviving members of One Parachute Battalion, keep strong and recover soon as we express our humble and fondest regards and extent a deserved SALUTE!
Long live Africa - the motherland!
(Personal tribute)
