The humiliating misfortune of the DRC led South African peacekeepers to be trapped in rebels, exposing long-standing issues.
Johannesburg – Clashes in a refreshingly devastated mining town in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have confirmed that defense experts have long known. South Africa’s military has been modified, once supported by military industrial complexes.
The South African Defence Force (SANDF) reputation suffocated under mud and blood, crushed concrete, melting in smoldering buildings and burnt-out armored cars on the streets of Goma near the DRC-Rwanda border.
Here, the M23 rebels have recently broken the “peacekeeping” forces mandated by the Congolese forces and the United Nations.
The DRC government says 7,000 people have been killed and 450,000 have been evacuated in eastern Congo since January.
Over the past few months, the Sandf decline has been highlighted by offloading more than 20 body bags at air force bases near Pretoria.
Now, South African troops are covered near Goma Airport, 15 miles from the town, and are quickly running out of food and ammunition.
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“We are being held hostage,” a South African soldier told the Epoch era from the troop base.
“Some of us are injured. We are distributing food and medicine. We are driving us out in a small group of M23 (permission) but not often. It’s a mess. He said, demanding that the troops not use his name as they are prohibited from talking to the media.
The M23 was founded in 2012 and claims to defend the interests of the Congo Tuttis, which shares ethnic interests with Rwandan President Paul Kagame.
According to political analysts, the actual battle is due to the key minerals of the Eastern DRC, many of which are essential for the manufacture of electric vehicles, batteries, mobile phones, computers and many other electronic devices.
The UN Security Council says Rwandan troops are in the eastern DRC to support the M23 rebels. But even if international television news channels show Rwandan troops pouring their borders into the eastern DRC in recent weeks, Kagame told CNN he wasn’t sure if his soldiers were there.
According to the Washington-based Foreign Relations Council, the DRC has been taken away by conflict for almost 30 years, with violence killing around 6 million people. In 2013, the peace agreement ended the battle between the M23 and Hutu Militias. Kagame accused Rwandan Tutsis of coordinating the 1994 genocide.
However, the M23 resumed fighting in late 2021, with Kinshasa denounced the revival of the agreement. He has pledged to overthrow President Felix Zisekedi’s government.
Members of the M23 movement have been paying attention during the registration of former members of the military of the Congo Democratic Republic (FARDC) and former members of the Congo Democratic Republic (FARDC), who allegedly decided to voluntarily participate in the M23 movement at Goma on February 23, 2025. Michel Lunanga/AFP via Getty Images
In February 2024, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the deployment of 2,900 soldiers into the eastern DRC to help Kinshasa’s troops stop the M23’s advance.
The announcement sparked a pour in warnings from defense experts.
Darren Olivier, director of the African Defense Review, an organisation that monitors conflicts on the continent, was one of the analysts who predicted South African troops would wither in the event of a massive rebel attack on Goma.
“Everyone could see that this wasn’t an old ragtag M23,” he told The Epoch Times. “Rwanda, one of Africa’s most powerful forces, has supplied the M23 with sophisticated weapons, including missile systems, drones and plenty of ammunition.”
Olivier said that joint forces of South Africa, Malawian, Tanzania and Congolese forces defeated the M23 in 2013.
The weapons are used by military forces around the world, including the British Army.
On its website, Denel Aeronautics of Pretoria, the maker of Rooivalk, describes the helicopter as “providing unparalleled firepower, maneuverability and air protection.”
South African military analyst Hermod Heidmann said during the Epoch era that Ruark’s main strengths were his ability to operate in extremely bad weather and his “heavy firepower” such as turret guns, 70 mm rockets, air-to-air missiles and air-inflated missiles.
“In the military, Rooivalk is considered to be the only rival of America’s famous Apache helicopter,” says Heitman.
Siphiwe Dlamini, a spokesman for the South African Ministry of Defense, confirmed during the Epoch era, as the reason the helicopters are not in the DRC at this time is because they are “due to contractual issues.”
Speaking to the Epoch Times, Dennel sources said the government had suspended payments for the company in late 2023 to maintain the aircraft.
One manager said: “Dennel’s contract with the government is to cover the costs of engineers and engineers who are experts with regard to Rualk. However, Dennel never got paid, so we left.”
“That’s a dishonorable,” Olivier responded. “Luval is used all over the world except in the country in which it is made. Its grounding symbolizes corruption set in South African military. There is corruption and low morale everywhere you look. There are also warships and submarines in the dry dock, as they have not been served for years.”
Dlamini said “budget constraints” are responsible for this.
“We have so many priorities in poor countries of millions,” he said. “The government is forced to spend billions of rands on health, education and social grants. Cuts need to be made. Unfortunately, the Army and Navy are victims of these cuts.”
However, the Democratic Union (DA), a leading partner of South Africa’s Union government and the African National Congress (ANC), said leadership, inadequate management and corruption are primarily responsible for poor defensive capabilities.
“How… do we send the eyes of the storm knowing that they don’t have the weapons or ammunition needed to launch a successful attack or defense?” asked Chris Hattingh, a spokesman on military affairs for the DA.
“I have never seen such a pathetic failure in a military program.”
Cobbs Murray, a former colonel in the South African Army, said the root of Sand F’s “meltdown” lies in the ANC’s “chronism.”
South African police officers and soldiers are standing in front of migrants after raiding the building in Johannesburg’s central business district on May 8, 2015. Mujahid Safodien/AFP via Getty Images
“Since 1994, our combat forces have been led by people who simply shouldn’t be there,” he told The Epoch Times. “There’s a huge difference between guerillas leading through the bushes and actually running the country’s military.”
After apartheid, the ANC government merged the armed wings of the liberation movement with official forces that helped impose control of white minorities.
“Not everything in the old South African Defence Forces (SADF) is good, but not everything was bad,” Male said.
“The standards were very high. We had the best weapons and training. When we fought what we called terrorists and went to the border to fight the communist Cuban forces in Angola, we had the right supplies and weapons, so we won. And we were led by commanders struggling with a very experienced battle. These standards are disappearing from the SANDF, mainly because the troops don’t have government support.”
Dlamini described Murray’s claim as “mortal and wrong.”
“The government is totally confident in those who have chosen to lead the South African army,” he said. “It’s discriminatory to say these men and women are poor soldiers just because they were once members of the Liberation Army. But I agree that SANDF needs more funding and we’re working on it.
“Just because our troops submitted to the M23 doesn’t mean they’re badly equipped. No one could have foreseen such a swift, armed attack on Goma.”
No experts include Olivier, Heitman, and independent conflict analyst Dean Wingrin.
“Look, our army was not led to the ground and home by politicians who certainly harmed them that they weren’t equipped for the mission,” he told The Epoch Times. “If things don’t go well, there was clearly no plan to pull them out of the DRC. If there was, they wouldn’t be jailed at their base now.”
Dlamini said negotiations with the M23 leader to secure the release of trapped South African soldiers is in good condition.
“We flew reinforcements and aircraft to Lubumbashi (620 miles from Goma). We fly to extract the troops as soon as we reach a deal with the M23,” he said.
However, this week, the UN worked with rebel leaders to evacuate more than 100 sick and injured South African soldiers and intervene involving three people, including three.
“Our rescuers are waiting to help us extract another group of our brave fighters soon,” Dlamini said.
No matter what happens in the future, the DRC mission represents South Africa’s “humiliation,” Olivier said.
“If you want to contribute to future conflicts, if you need truly world-class defensive capabilities, you’re putting your money and skills into the military,” he said.
But Wingrin says the opposite will occur.
“The 2025/26 defense budget is just over R50 billion ($2.7 billion), which is less than 0.7% of GDP. It’s not enough to drive Sandf forward. That means that its mission will be severely breached in the future, like the DRC,” he said.
SANDF has failed to pay for serious spares, maintenance, equipment upgrades and new weapons for the past three years.
“Given these circumstances, it’s stupid to deploy our troops everywhere,” he said. “The Navy’s budget is declining. The Air Force budget is declining. If any of the countries are infiltrating us now… well, let’s not go there for now.”
