“I grew up impressed with South Africans and how you overcame apartheid, but now you are here in my country to kill our dreams of freedom. We are fighting a war of survival, but your government came to shut our dreams down.”
These are the words of Manzi Ngarambe, a senior member of the militia group M23, after clashes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have left 13 South African soldiers dead over the past 10 days.
In an interview with the Sunday Times, Ngarambe said he was angry with President Cyril Ramaphosa and his government, not South Africa.
“We still admire the people of South Africa, but it is the head of the animal that is worrying. We are making great progress in this war. What happens when we really reach the minerals — and we are almost there? How long will your soldiers defend Ramaphosa’s gold?”
He believes South Africa has let Rwanda down.
“My mother has been living in a refugee camp since 1994. Every president of South Africa before the last two spoke about our plight and cared about us. These last two want mining,” Ngarambe said.
He said M23 forces were “outnumbered but it doesn’t matter”.
“We are waging war against Burundi, Tanzania, South Africa, the DRC and even mercenaries from Eastern Europe. None of these matter. We are fighting for our land, our soil and our people.”
He believes the conflict is part of a bigger proxy war. “On one side you have the instigators of the ’90s massacre and on the other side the victims. Do South Africans realise you are fighting on the side of the instigators?”
Ngarambe denied that South African soldiers were being held hostage by M23. “Why would we let the Romanian mercenaries we caught go back to their homes and not South Africans? We have no South African prisoners. We disarmed everyone in Goma, so if there is a South African soldier somewhere in the city I can guarantee you two things — he will be unarmed and unharmed.”
The M23 have disarmed some South African soldiers. “They are all in the Monusco [UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo] camp where they are staying until arrangements can be made to send them home.
“And we want them home in South Africa, we don’t want your soldiers here. They must not be ashamed of being disarmed and sent home because they were not ashamed when they came here uninvited.”
The Goma airport is under the control of M23. “Nobody can land or take off there without our permission. It would be foolish and a waste of lives to try,” Ngarambe said.
Responding to claims by SANDF sources that M23 would only allow the bodies of South African soldiers to fly home from Kigali airport in Rwanda — 173km away from Goma, Ngarambe said the Southern African Development Community had asked M23 to use Goma airport for the repatriation of bodies.
It had also requested permission to search for and recover the remains of dead soldiers from the field of battle and access to Goma to collect medical supplies and food.
He said negotiations over repatriation must be concluded before anybody could say which airport is to be used. “It can be Goma or Kigali, depending on the outcome of the talks. But the returning soldiers will not be humiliated,” Ngarambe said.
“We treat people with dignity. Why would we send the Romanians by bus to fly out and then march the South Africans through the streets?”
A Sunday Times intelligence source in Kigali saw the contingent of Romanians leave on a bus for the airport. “I can confirm that they were well treated,” he said on Friday.
He said M23 had already made a difference to the lives of Goma residents. “There were minimal civilian casualties and the city is mostly if not completely intact. We have already restored power to most areas and the city is now 100% under M23 control.”
The source laughed at claims made in a statement by the SANDF that soldiers had raised a white flag at M23’s request so both sides could collect their casualties.
“Why would they raise the white flag if we wanted to collect our casualties? And why would they even care about the dead if it is clear by the lack of support that they do not even care about the living?”
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