EFF’s Carl Niehaus calls for Minister Motshekga to resign following DRC fiasco

Carl Niehaus

Cape Town — Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) MP, Carl Niehaus, has called for Minister of Defence, Angie Motshekga, to resign following the attack that killed nine soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) confirmed that nine soldiers died while stationed in the DRC and now Minister Motshekga has many questions to answer over the decision not to recall any soldiers.

Niehaus, who is on Parliament’s portfolio committee on defence and military veterans, said Motshekga has ignored the SANDF’s current state of affairs and operational abilities in the DRC, IOL reported.

“She must go, she must resign. She spoke on SABC last week, where she told us that everything is fine and that the SANDF is capable of dealing with anything that it can be faced with, it can protect the nation and everything is fine in the DRC. At that time, this tragedy we are now aware of, was already playing out,” said Niehaus.

He questioned why Motshekga gave a false impression of the situation and said she had known for a long time that the SANDF was collapsing. He acknowledged that the SANDF is under-resourced and lacks critical equipment which prevents its capability to be part of the Southern African Development Community Mission in the DRC (SAMDRC) and the United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission (MONUSCO).

“We do not have an air force to speak of. Our army is under-resourced, and without the necessary equipment can protect SANDF soldiers in the DRC. The sad thing is that the M23 rebels are far better equipped, with technical equipment and training than the SANDF troops. This is not something we learned yesterday. We knew it all along, so to have sent the troops there, was to send them to a killing field,” said Niehaus.

Niehaus also criticised Motshekga’s trip to the DRC and was disappointed that some troops were pulled from their camp to provide personal security for the Minister.

“Her presence in the DRC was a counter-productive move. She directed critical, scarce resources from the theatre of operations, from the war, to protect her,” he said.

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Compiled by Matthew Petersen

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