Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans (PCDMV) Dakota Legoete has apologised for the cancellation of a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), promising a meeting to do so next week.
In a statement on Thursday 30 January, Legoete said the cancellation of Wednesday’s meeting was to better facilitate a meeting with the Minister of Defence, Angie Motshekga. The meeting was set up to discuss the deaths of South African soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
He said the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) and the Defence Ministry have communicated “poorly” in the wake of the public outcry about the deaths of the South African soldiers in the DRC. “The committee is therefore committed to the need for a proper engagement with the Minister and the SANDF on the matter.”
Legoete noted, “This type of engagement would not have been possible in the scheduled committee meeting of 29 January, given the unavailability of the Minister, who was attending the Cabinet lekgotla.”
In addition, other matters that will influence the content of such an engagement still have to play out over the coming days, notably the upcoming Southern African Development Community (SADC) meeting in Harare on Friday, “which will strongly influence the situation on the ground. Such factors further influenced the decision to look for a later date to engage with the Minister.”
He added: “I sincerely and unreservedly apologise to my fellow committee members for the inconvenience caused by the cancellation of the meeting. I assure members of this committee and South Africans that the committee’s focus has not been diverted from its crucial oversight responsibilities.”
The committee has formally applied for approval from the House Chairperson to convene a joint meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans and the Joint Standing Committee on Defence on Tuesday, 4 February.
“This meeting will provide both committees with the opportunity to engage directly with the Minister of Defence and senior military leadership,” Legoete stated.
In a letter to the Joint Standing Committee on Defence, National Assembly, and National Council of Provinces, Democratic Alliance (DA) MPs Chris Hattingh, Maliyakhe Lymon Shelembe, and Nicholas Gotsell, on Thursday requested an immediate urgent sitting of the Joint Standing Committee on Defence.
“Over the last week, the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has reached crisis levels. No less than thirteen South African troops have died in combat in the eastern DRC, with more wounded. These brave men and women have been left in the lurch by the South African National Defence Force – ill-equipped, under resourced, and unprepared, they are fighting a life and death struggle in impossible circumstances. Lacking critical air support and equipment, our troops are facing immense odds,” they said in the latter.
In light of Wednesday’s postponed meeting, they said, “at this stage, however, it is vital that parliamentary scrutiny takes its rightful place in our democratic set-up. It cannot be that Parliament remains silent and that elected representatives of the South African people are frustrated in their constitutional duties to hold the government to account, in the midst of what is nothing less than an existential crisis for the SANDF and our troops abroad.”
In light of these developments, the three members of the Joint Standing Committee on Defence “request that an urgent meeting of the Committee be scheduled immediately and without any delay to discuss these matters. In addition, we request that the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Angie Motshekga, and the Chiefs of the Armed Forces, be summoned to appear before the Committee on the same day. That said, and even in the event that it is not possible for the aforesaid functionaries to attend a meeting of the Committee on immediate notice, we request that the Committee meets in any event.”
They added that “this matter can no longer be left untouched. Parliament and this Committee must – and is indeed obliged by our duties under the Constitution and the oath we all took – to not shy away from this brewing calamity. Our men and women in uniform, our fellow South Africans, deserve to have their voices heard. It is up to this Committee to take the lead in this matter. If an emergency such as this does not warrant an urgent sitting of the very body responsible for overseeing our armed forces, then this Committee would have failed in its constitutional mandate.”
