International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola
International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola and his Rwandan counterpart Olivier Nduhungirehe have tried to mend fences after a diplomatic row broke out between their presidents on Wednesday night.
Lamola called Nduhungirehe on Thursday, after Rwandan President Paul Kagame accused President Cyril Ramaphosa of misrepresenting the content of their two recent phone calls on the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Lamola’s office described their conversation as “cordial” and said he impressed the need for the two nations to keep communication channels open and work towards a ceasefire in the DRC.
“Had a call with Minister @ONduhungirehe. We committed to advancing dialogue on eastern #DRC and agreed to pursue the spirit of the ceasefire agreement as per our Heads of State and regional processes of SADC and the East African community #PeaceBuilding,” Lamola said in a post on social media site X.
On Friday morning, Nduhungirehe replied to Lamola’s post with one of his own.
“Thank you my brother @RonaldLamola for the good and constructive conversation we had yesterday evening,” he wrote. “Rwanda remains committed to peace and stability in eastern DRC. Looking forward to working with South Africa towards common aspirations in our region and in the whole continent.”
Lamola went into damage control mode after Kagame took exception to a statement posted by Ramaphosa’s office on Wednesday, and launched an extraordinary verbal attack through X.
The communique defended the role of the SAMIDRC, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) peacekeeping mission in eastern DRC, which includes a sizeable South African contingent that suffered 13 casualties in the last week as Tutsi-led M23 rebels laid siege to Goma.
It initially included the line: “The fighting is the result of an escalation by the rebel group M23 and Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) militia engaging the Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC) and attacking peacekeepers from the SADC Mission in the DRC (SAMIDRC).”
The reference to RDF militia, which South African diplomats saw as the trigger for the outburst, was subsequently deleted.
Kagame said he wished to state clearly that the Rwanda Defence Force “is an army, not a militia”, before saying the SAMIDRC should get out of the eastern DRC.
“What has been said about these conversations in the media by South African officials and President Ramaphosa himself contains a lot of distortion, deliberate attacks, and even lies,” he said. “SAMIDRC is not a peacekeeping force, and it has no place in this situation.
“It was authorised by SADC as a belligerent force engaging in offensive combat operations to help the DRC government fight against its own people, working alongside genocidal armed groups like FDLR [Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda] which target Rwanda, while also threatening to take the war to Rwanda itself.”
Ramaphosa is pushing hard for peace talks to resume with a view to reaching a ceasefire agreement in a conflict that could again draw in the wider Great Lakes region.
The latest casualties of South African soldiers has increased the domestic pressure he faces over a peacekeeping mission the country can fiscally ill-afford, as have fears for the South African contingent that has been trapped in their base at Goma airport since M23 rebels overran the city on Monday.
Kagame said Ramaphosa had asked him for support to “ensure the South African force has adequate electricity, food and water, which we shall help communicate”.
It is reliably understood that he has extended help in this regard.
Diplomats have said this made the row all the more unfortunate, and Lamola conceded in a radio interview that it “could have been handled differently”.
It is understood that Ramaphosa has, in separate phone calls with DRC President Felix Tshisekedi, ruled out sending reinforcements to his country and sought to persuade him to finally agree to direct talks with the M23.
Diplomats said the same message would be reiterated at Friday’s SADC summit in Harare.
Tshisekedi this week flew to Luanda to meet Angolan President João Lourenço, who has been the African Union mediator between the DRC and Rwanda, and helped to broker a ceasefire in mid-2024.
Kagame on Thursday, in another post on X, said he had a productive conversation with Lourenço in which they “discussed the need for a long-term and sustainable solution to the ongoing situation in the DRC”.
He has denied UN reports that he sent 4 000 RDF soldiers across the border to support the rebels’ lightning offensive on Goma, maintaining that his actions in the ethnically volatile Kivu provinces are defensive.
Kagame’s accusation that South African troops are fighting alongside Hutu forces complicates Ramaphosa’s bid to spur negotiations that could see a new ceasefire agreement and revives long-running tension between the two leaders.
“If South Africa wants to contribute to peaceful solutions, that is well and good, but South Africa is in no position to take on the role of a peacemaker or mediator. And if South Africa prefers confrontation, Rwanda will deal with the matter in that context any day,” he said.
Ramaphosa’s office has not responded to him directly.