Advocacy group Put Patrollers First (PPF) has appealed to the South African government in general and President Cyril Ramaphosa in particular to stop deploying the country’s soldiers outside the country in war-torn places like the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The PPF opines that the country’s soldiers (SANDF) should instead be deployed right inside the country to protect South African citizens against foreigners who are commiting heinous crimes against local citizens.
PPF also wants the Rwandan government to apologise for the killing of 14 soldiers in the DRC earlier this year and on top of that they want Rwanda to compensate the families of the deceased soldiers.
To drive their demand home, the patrollers marched to the Rwandan Embassy in Tshwane on Friday to deliver a memorandum of grievances, but the Rwandan officials at there refused to come out and receive the said memorandum, citing the fact that the Rwandan ambassador was not around but attending the G20 meeting in Kempton Park.
The memorandum partly reads as follows:
“We are writing this letter to express deep concern over the killing of 14 South African soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo by M23 rebels, allegedly with support from the Rwandan government.”
The memorandum then goes on to list the following demands:
1.We want a clear explanation regarding Rwanda’s involvement in this incident.
2. We want a formal apology to the families of the fallen soldiers and to the people of South Africa.
3.We demand financial reparations to the bereaved families of the slain soldiers for their tragic loss.
The memorandum was read to the media by PPF chairperson Cyril Madlala.
According to Gauteng PPF President Collen Makgopela, the PPF is concerned about the shabby treatment that is given to patrollers in general, including soldiers because after dying in combat they are not offered any compensation and their families are left behind destitute.
“The South African government doesn’t care about the soldiers and the police and we therefore want to know as to who will compensate the families of the deceased soldiers,” asked Makgopela.
“The Rwandan government must explain to us as to why it killed our soldiers and we also want President Ramaphosa to tell us why he had deployed the said soldiers in the DRC in the first place; these are the answers that the families of the slain soldiers are waiting for, but the government is ignoring them in this regard,” he fumed.
“We want changes here and the SANDF soldiers must protect us citizens of South Africa right here in our country, instead of being deployed in outside countries, this as we are surrounded by foreigners who are taking our government for granted,” he said.
“We are asking and begging the Rwandan government to please stop killing our brothers, sisters and fathers and if they value life then they (Rwandans) will stop what they are doing, and we are also asking Ramaphosa to go to the DRC and stop the killing of our soldiers,” he said.
Makgopela said there are evident crisis regarding safety and security in South Africa and that the South African troops must be deployed right inside the country instead of in foreign African countries.