IN A move expected to save money for the resource-starved Department of Defence, the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) could deploy troops now serving with the United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Monusco) to the new UN intervention brigade that will combat M23 rebels in that country.

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South African soldiers are deployed on peace missions in the Congo and Sudan but preparations have been made to send troops to spearhead offensive operations against an array of irregular but war-hardened forces in the eastern Congo. It would be the first such move in Africa’s history to have a UN mandate to physically neutralise and disarm rebel groups.

Siphiwe Dlamini, head of communication in the Department of Defence, said South Africa and the UN had not yet concluded a memorandum of understanding on the deployment of ground soldiers to the eastern Congo.

The deployment — a 3,000-strong force of South African, Tanzanian and Malawian troops — has already attracted criticism from political analysts for being too slow because of the lack of a memorandum of understanding and due to 11th-hour efforts to restart negotiations between antagonists in the Great Lakes region.

Three battalions from South Africa, Tanzania and Malawi will make up the force, called an intervention brigade. It will be based in Goma, the capital of the chronically unstable North Kivu province.

Army chief Lt-Gen Vusumuzi Masondo told the media in May that the South African army was suitably prepared and equipped for the conditions it may encounter during peace support operations in the Congo, adding that the SANDF had learnt from the attacks in the Central African Republic that led to the deaths of 14 of its soldiers.

Mr Dlamini said the SANDF in June completed the six-monthly rotations of soldiers in the Congo under the Monusco mandate. “Only the legalities pertaining to deployment of ground soldiers for an intervention brigade are outstanding,” he said.

Lindiwe Zulu, a special adviser to President Jacob Zuma who was part of South Africa’s delegation to the African Union summit in Addis Ababa in May, told journalists in June that the AU supported the idea of a political dialogue to run concurrently with the intervention brigade so that role-players in the region also explored dialogue as an alternative.

It is understood that some soldiers now in the Congo under the Monusco mandate have completed advanced training and could easily be sent to the east of the country under the new UN mandate.

Business Day has also independently confirmed that the headquarters of the new intervention force has been established in Goma, with the UN-appointed Brazilian Gen Carlos Alberto dos Santos Cruz to lead the force.

South African defence secretary Sam Gulube told the media last week that moving South African soldiers into the intervention brigade would “change the dynamics of the DRC conflict”.

Mr Gulube was also reported as saying SANDF officers had been sent to Brazil to train in jungle warfare ahead of the deployment to the eastern Congo.