Mr Speaker, I withdraw. Well, it was Joseph Campbell who remarked that, and I quote: "A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself". Thirteen South African soldiers gave their lives in the Central African Republic. There is no doubt that they died heroes - and all of them.
There is a major controversy though over the cause and reasons for sending those brave young men to die on a foreign soil in the first place. The government appears to be playing cover-up with conflicting reports emanating from the Presidency, the Department of International Relations and Co-operation and the Department of Defence and Military Veterans, such as the statement made by the Minister of Defence, stating that our soldiers were there to provide specialist military training to the Central African Republic's defence force. Furthermore, she said that the soldiers were there to be deployed as part of a post conflict reconstruction, development and support programme, which, by the way, is not covered anywhere in the Memorandum of Understanding, MOU, of 2007.
The Minister of International Relations and Co-operation then entered the foray with Operation Morero in her reply to the question asked on 10 February 2011, which is also a surprise, surprise! - not covered in the MOU. Our Minister of Defence and Military Veterans feigns no knowledge of any VIP protection for that tinpot despot, Francois Boziz.
We want to know the truth about why our soldiers were sent to the Central African Republic? Was it because they were protecting certain South African mineral rights and business interests? Was it to provide a private security force for President Boziz or to provide specialist military training as the MOU states or all of the abovementioned?
The Minister said initially that they were there protecting certain South African assets which were unspecified. The President was at best vague when he provided Parliament with reasons for the extension of the deployment. The Minister was just clueless. The incongruencies continue to stack up in this matter. Can you actually provide training through operation vimbezela which by its very definition means a pre-emptive strike?
Uvimbezela kanjani uma uya koqeqeshwa? [How do you perform pre-emptive strike when you are going to be trained?]
The deployment was at its very best shockingly planned. There were numerous oversights, many of which could have directly or indirectly played roles in the death of our soldiers. It is reported that our soldiers were not properly equipped. They had only one medical doctor and were in no way in a state of combat readiness in which to engage on such a huge contingent of rebels. There are further reports that our boys had to beg for essential equipments from French paratroopers. What kind of poor operational planning is this? Or is it just that this government considers the lives of our soldiers expendable?
This entire saga has been fraught with inconsistencies and anomalies. The net result being that 13 South Africans lost their lives. Our boys fought fiercely even though they were largely outnumbered. The fire fight lasted for 18 hours. One continues to hear horror stories of how our soldiers decried the fact that they were forced to engage mere children who were firing upon them. This is a tragedy in all sides and must be answered for by our government. I thank you. [Applause.]