Prime Minister Nicolas Tiangaye is expected to meet President Jacob Zuma in Pretoria.
|||As law and order spiral out of control in the Central African Republic, Prime Minister Nicolas Tiangaye is expected to meet President Jacob Zuma in Pretoria today, where the two are likely to discuss the possible redeployment of South African troops to the CAR.
But news that the troops may return to the CAR – coming on the heels of the national outcry after 13 SA National Defence Force soldiers were killed there in March – has sparked renewed speculation that the country’s military might is being used to protect sensitive commercial interests in the CAR.
The government has strongly suggested Tiangaye is coming to discuss the return of South African troops, although Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe declared in Parliament on Wednesday: “I deny that South Africa is planning to send more troops to the CAR.”
At a summit of the Economic Community of Central African States (Eccas) in N’djamena, Chad, last week, regional leaders decided to send a force of 2 000 troops to the CAR to help restore order to the country, which has been chaotic since the Seleka rebels toppled President Francois Bozize on March 24.
Zuma attended the summit and said this week that his government had received a verbal request from the Eccas leaders to contribute troops to the force, but would only consider it once the request had been put formally.
He suggested it would be wrong to turn down the request in the light of his government’s stated policy to help stabilise Africa. His spokesman, Mac Maharaj, added that any request would be considered “sympathetically”.
There are already around 500 Eccas troops in the CAR, supplied by Chad, Gabon, Congo and Cameroon and earlier this month, Tiangaye made an appeal for more French and regional troops to be deployed.
Last week, UN officials spoke out against gross human rights abuses, including killing, sexual offences and the recruitment of child soldiers.
And on Monday the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court said the situation in the CAR was “deteriorating daily” and included attacks against civilians.
Government sources said the loss of 13 soldiers in CAR on March 23 in a fierce battle with the Seleka rebels, would not deter the government from sending SA troops back.
However, Tiangaye himself said after the Eccas summit that although discussions had been held with Zuma there, “the participation of South African troops in the forces of Eccas has not been formally considered”.
“And I think it’s premature,” he said, adding that a CAR government delegation would visit South Africa “to discuss co-operation on the basis of trust and mutual respect between the two states”.
But some analysts believe it was Zuma and not the Eccas leaders who proposed that South African troops should return to CAR. They believe the purpose of such a mission would be to protect South African commercial interests, a consideration they believe motivated South Africa to send more troops in the first place, a claim the government has denied.
South Africa has had a small military presence in the CAR since 2007. Opposition party members yesterday questioned the wisdom of redeploying SANDF troops.
DA spokesman on defence David Maynier said: “My view is that the SANDF should not be redeployed and in fact, to do so would be madness, particularly because they’re unlikely to be regarded as legitimate force by all the parties in the CAR.
“The last time the SANDF… got a bloody nose.” - Weekend Argus