Calls for SA intervention as Isis gathers pace in Mozambique
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With its minority Islamic State (IS) influence, the rising home-grown insurgency in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado — gateway to exploratory offshore gas-fields — is raising eyebrows at Southern African Development Community (Sadc) level.On July 29, the journal Africa Intelligence reported that SA’s Brig-Gen Xolani Mankayi had ordered the soldiers of 43 SA Brigade to begin intensive training for possible action in Cabo Delgado — if President Cyril Ramaphosa orders as much.The brigade is the planning element of the rapid intervention component SA has pledged to Sadc’s standby force.But don’t expect the soldiers to be packing their kitbags just yet. The last time the brigade intervened in another country under Sadc auspices was in September 1998.
Then called 43 Mechanised Brigade, it ran the field headquarters of Operation Boleas to put down a mutiny in Lesotho — and that took three months to plan.Also, the defence department’s annual performance plan for 2020 notes that, due to budget cuts, "the SA pledge to the Sadc was revised downwards to reflect current resource levels availability".The defence budget for 2020/2021 is estimated at R52.4bn, and is expected to drop by more than R1.5bn in the following financial year.Still, the performance plan notes that deployments in support of Sadc peacekeeping operations "will continue to be maintained as part of a ‘core conventional capability’ ...
for deployment internally and externally in times of crises".In addition, the document reaffirms SA’s commitment to the AU’s temporary rapid-intervention force, precursor to the African standby force.One stumbling block in the military’s ability to deploy is insufficient air transport for Rooivalk attack helicopters, logistics and armoured vehicles, for rapid insertions.This was glaringly obvious in the 2013 battle of Bangui in the Central African Republic (CAR), when delays in hiring civilian transport aircraft for reinforcing supplies — including Mamba armoured vehicles — cost the lives of 13 SA soldiers.Air charter hire alone during the CAR deployment cost R108.8m — double the cost of the deployment.Sam Gulube, outgoing secretary of SA’s defence & military veterans, told the
Sovereign Security Conference last week he is "deeply concerned about the situation in Mozambique".The almost three-year insurgency in Cabo Delgado has already displaced about 100,000 people (some reports claim double that), and resulted in the deaths of at least 1,000.Reportedly financed by the trade in illicit rubies, ivory, rubber, charcoal and timber, the insurgency sprang to prominence again in May, when rebels — ...
Then called 43 Mechanised Brigade, it ran the field headquarters of Operation Boleas to put down a mutiny in Lesotho — and that took three months to plan.Also, the defence department’s annual performance plan for 2020 notes that, due to budget cuts, "the SA pledge to the Sadc was revised downwards to reflect current resource levels availability".The defence budget for 2020/2021 is estimated at R52.4bn, and is expected to drop by more than R1.5bn in the following financial year.Still, the performance plan notes that deployments in support of Sadc peacekeeping operations "will continue to be maintained as part of a ‘core conventional capability’ ...
for deployment internally and externally in times of crises".In addition, the document reaffirms SA’s commitment to the AU’s temporary rapid-intervention force, precursor to the African standby force.One stumbling block in the military’s ability to deploy is insufficient air transport for Rooivalk attack helicopters, logistics and armoured vehicles, for rapid insertions.This was glaringly obvious in the 2013 battle of Bangui in the Central African Republic (CAR), when delays in hiring civilian transport aircraft for reinforcing supplies — including Mamba armoured vehicles — cost the lives of 13 SA soldiers.Air charter hire alone during the CAR deployment cost R108.8m — double the cost of the deployment.Sam Gulube, outgoing secretary of SA’s defence & military veterans, told the
Sovereign Security Conference last week he is "deeply concerned about the situation in Mozambique".The almost three-year insurgency in Cabo Delgado has already displaced about 100,000 people (some reports claim double that), and resulted in the deaths of at least 1,000.Reportedly financed by the trade in illicit rubies, ivory, rubber, charcoal and timber, the insurgency sprang to prominence again in May, when rebels — ...
