Hon Speaker, can I dare start by saying that the Minister has missed an opportunity? I had thought that she was coming to explain what actually transpired in the Central African Republic, but she has chosen to do some cheap politicking and try to justify herself in front of the South Africans. I am glad that at least sanity has prevailed on the Minister. She has stopped looking for a cheap scapegoat in the form of Mr Lekota, saying: "It was you; it was you who signed the agreement. That's why our soldiers are there." The truth of the matter is that the agreement that was signed by hon Lekota expired in February last year, and for a period of about 10 month our soldiers where on a foreign soil without any legal and contractual backing. So, if that is not mercenarism, I do not know what it is.
The Minister of Defence and the South African government should not be expecting us to blow kisses to her or offer her sweets and chocolates for what has transpired in the Central African Republic recently. [Laughter.] I don't want to kiss you, Minister. To the Minister herself, the sweets of war are mortars and heavy weaponry. You do not go into someone's backyard and expect them to hug and kiss you when you are not welcome.
Minister, Cope would like to emphasise that you failed our soldiers dismally. [Applause.] You failed in the most fundamental expectation and you decided not to take this country into your confidence by telling us the whole truth, and nothing else, but the truth. It would seem, when the story of President Jacob Zuma's disastrous leadership is being told to the future generations of our country and that of the continent, that the good name of D V Mapisa will be mentioned alongside his name. [Applause.]
You do not need to be reminded that it was under your watch as the Minister of Correctional Services that a convicted fraudster, Schabir Schaik, was released on a frivolous parole. Yet again, it is under your watch that 13 of our young soldiers have lost their lives in a foreign country, without any legal backing or contractual basis. Again, you are taking them to the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, where M23 rebels have already cautioned us that this time around they will not be dealing with child soldiers, but true rebels and true rebels indeed. Oh help us God!
The government of Central African Republic did not make a formal request to the sovereign state of South Africa via Parliament to ask for troops to be sent there. We learnt of our support long after the fact. The ousted President of the Central African Republic, Franois Boziz, made a personal request directly to President Zuma also without having gone through his own country's national passage. It is the same with love letters that were exchanged between our Minister and the Minister in Central African Republic, her counterpart. They call them diplomatic notes.
An expert of constitutional law in Central African Republic, Matre Zarambaud Assingambi, has been reported saying that any such agreement that is purported to have been signed between the two countries must have been ratified by their National Assembly. Neither President Boziz nor our President did that.
We hear that the SA National Defence Force's, SANDF, Chief Lieutenant General, Solly Shoke, has issued a root-them-out order that all the soldiers who have actually spilled the beans on what happened on that fateful Sunday should be brought to book and be rooted out of our defence. Cope would like to know ... [Interjections.] It is none of your business. Cope would like to know the secrets that were leaked if the deployment was publicly known and passed by our Parliament according to the President?
Similarly, Article 28 of the Central African Republic's Constitution required that President Boziz gets his country's National Assembly to pass any defence agreement before he goes out shopping for assistance. He did not do that. [Time expired.]