Stefaans Brmmer
AS African leaders met in Nairobi this week to discuss the rapidly worsening crisis in the Great Lakes Region, South Africa’s envoy, Welile Nhlapo, had to sit outside and wait.
The summit on Tuesday, attended by the presidents or prime ministers of Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, and by Organisation of African Unity secretary general Salim Salim, took an international lead by proposing a neutral peace force to give safe haven to an estimated million refugees.
The African call mirrored urgent discussions in Western capitals on the nature of an inevitable foreign intervention. Germany has called for an urgent session of the United Nations Security Council, which was expected to meet late this week.
Nhlapo’s exclusion from the summit’s main session, along with other “observers”, underscored South Africa’s relatively passive role in Africa’s latest crisis. Often pressed by Western powers to take a regional lead, South Africa was again standing on the sidelines, saying it would take its cue from others in the region.
Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad appeared to be aware of the pressure when he told a briefing in Pretoria: “We are quite conscious that we are a very important country on the African continent and that we have a responsibility for the continent.”
He said President Nelson Mandela was in constant contact with regional leaders, and that Deputy President Thabo Mbeki would discuss the crisis with leaders during his current European visit.
But, as South African Institute of International Affairs chief Greg Mills pointed out, the one regional grouping directly affected by the crisis but yet to get involved in deliberations is the Southern African Development Community (SADC), currently chaired by Mandela.
“I don’t think we’re playing a leading role, and I don’t think we’re playing the role expected of the most prominent country in SADC and in the entire sub-Saharan Africa.”
Mills said it was imperative for South Africa to become actively involved this time, as the “Afro-pessimism” that tended to result from African crises would affect South Africa as much as any other. South Africa also risked losing its “African stature, irrespective of Mandela”.
But opening the way to South Africa’s possible greater involvement, Foreign Affairs announced this week that “after high-level consultation with leaders in the Great Lakes region and reports of cross- border incursions by Rwandan armed forces” the supply of South African arms to Rwanda was being suspended.
Coming less than six weeks after South Africa approved the sale of R87-million worth of light arms and armoured personnel carriers, it removes one of the main stumbling blocks to South Africa acting as a peace broker or contributing troops as it could help restore the country’s image of neutrality.
At the same time, leaked details from a still secret UN report, compiled by a commission looking into allegations of arms smuggling to the Great Lakes region, implicate South African citizens, along with nationals from a number of other countries.
What remains to be seen is whether South Africa will take the final step of committing troops should the UN give the go- ahead for a multinational intervention. Mandela previously made it clear he would be wary of committing troops to African hotspots, because of the strains of transition on the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), and also because South Africa, seen as a regional bully in the apartheid era, could easily offend.
Foreign Affairs liaison officer Marco Boni said there had now been a shift in the South African attitude, and although it was still felt there was a lack of military capacity, South Africa was more ready than earlier this year when it said it would not join a Burundi peace force. “This is a different kettle of fish. We are definitely more aware and more prepared.”