Honouring our fallen soldiers but questioning the DRC mission

The deaths of 14 of our soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo, whose bodies were finally brought home on Friday, has justifiably raised many questions about South Africa’s involvement in one of the continent’s bloodiest and most intractable conflicts. 

In a broad sense, South Africans have asked why we have invested so much in a dispute in a country so many kilometres away — and one with which we do not share a border. Or why South Africa should concern itself with the internal affairs of any African country, instead of focusing on its many problems.