'CAR deployment was not decision of SA alone'

President Jacob Zuma earlier this month announced the withdrawal of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) soldiers from the CAR, following the killing last month of 13 South African troops by Seleka rebels on route to seizing the capital Bangui.

Reading a Cabinet statement in the National Assembly on the deployment of SANDF troops in the CAR, Mapisa-Nqakula said a memorandum was signed with the CAR in 2007, following the resolution at an AU Peace and Stability Council for the member state.

"South Africa therefore didn't decide on its own to go into the Central African Republic," she said.

She said the deployment was firmly aligned to the country's foreign policy objectives of building a better Africa, which would improve South Africa's own economic future.

The memorandum was then renewed in December last year and when the security situation deteriorated, the government had made a decision to send an additional 200 troops were sent to the CAR to help guard equipment and SA assets.

Mapisa-Nqakula said the opposition had used the mainstream media to build a campaign to distort the SANDF's mission in CAR.

"Not once have the reports about this mission emphasised the heroism of our soldiers, selecting to deliberately [paint] an image of a defeated force, without giving valor to the 200 SANDF troops who fought for nine hours against a group of 3 000 (Seleka rebels), repelled the threat, killing 700 and suffered minimal casualties," she said.

The government had been forced to reveal sensitive military information, while leaks had led to strategic information on troops and equipment being revealed, placing SA troops at risk.

She said an e-mail sent by the DA's David Maynier to AU representative Margaret Vogt, to ascertain whether she as a minister had lied to the country when she said Vogt had indeed called on South Africa and other countries to keep their troops in the CAR, was an attempt to embarrass the country and herself.

"This is not how we are supposed to engage with problems in our country. I am here in the same country as Honourable Maynier. He has never asked me for evidence of this call, as made by Madame Vogt," Mapisa-Nqakula said.

She said South Africa could not capitulate when it came to ensuring peace and stability on the continent.

She singled out the withdrawal of US troops from Somalia after 18 US troops were killed by rebels in a 1993 operation and pointed out that this had led to a deteriorating security situation, which she pointed out had resulted in piracy of a grand scale.

In response, opposition members in the National Assembly continued to question the involvement of the SANDF, with Maynier calling for a full scale parliamentary enquiry into the deployment of troops in the CAR.