SANDF to honour 14 soldiers who died in DRC on UN Peacekeeping Day
The day is marked annually to pay tribute to the men and women who have served and continue to serve in United Nations peacekeeping missions.
Recently, South Africa lost 14 soldiers in the volatile eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The troops were deployed to the region in December 2023 to forge peace in the conflict-ridden country.
General Mothopeng said that they would be honoured on Thursday.
"This day is very significant as it touches, as I already alluded, that it touches on the lives of our members. Remember, that these men and women, when they leave their families, leave their country, leave with a smile and come back in coffins. It's something that also not only affects their families but also the nation at large."
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Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Next Stay Close ✕ The argument of self-defence collapses under the weight of the evidence. Starvation is not self-defence. The bombing of hospitals and schools is not self-defence. The targeting of journalists, medics, and aid workers is not self-defence. The indiscriminate shelling of refugee camps is not self-defence. It is the language of annihilation dressed in the rhetoric of security. This is the blueprint of settler-colonial violence: dispossess, dehumanise, destroy. Imagine being a 15-year-old in Gaza, watching your siblings dismembered by drones, your school reduced to dust, your parents executed while pleading for food. Or a mother cradling your malnourished baby as Israel blocks aid trucks, deliberately enforcing starvation. This is Israel's final solution for Palestine: erase them, silence them, break them. Western and allied powers might shackle the United Nations, but the history of such regimes shows that they are not invincible. The West initially tried to appease Hitler before finally realising how evil he was, and eighty years ago, Nazism was crushed. The West initially backed apartheid, and thirty-five years ago, it was on the edge of defeat. Every oppressive order eventually meets its reckoning. The people of Palestine are not waiting for saviours; they are resisting in the most extraordinary conditions imaginable. Gaza's women and youth refuse to be broken. Like our youth of the 70s and 80s rose against apartheid, Palestinian teenagers document their annihilation on social media, and women find means to sustain life. Doctors continue to perform surgeries by the light of mobile phones. Their resistance is not terrorism; it is the most profound act of courage in our time. But resistance without global solidarity is condemned to isolation. Israel's regime of terror will fall, but only if we fight with an urgency that appreciates that Gaza has no tomorrow. The machinery of destruction is sustained by money, resources, and political cover, all of which can be disrupted by organised public will. Boycotts can erode economic stability. Divestment can sap the financial underpinnings of the occupation. Sanctions can strip away the veneer of legitimacy. The choice is stark and immediate: act or become an entry in the ledger of complicity. The moral clarity of this moment should be as unmistakable as it was in the fight against apartheid in South Africa or the resistance to fascism. No amount of propaganda can conceal the reality that unfolds daily in Gaza's streets and hospitals. The International Court of Justice has ruled that Israel's actions are plausibly genocidal. History will judge those who looked the other way. To stand with Gaza is not an act of charity but of justice. It is to affirm the principle that no people should be condemned to live and die under siege, that no child should grow up with drones as their lullaby, and that no journalist should pay with their life for telling the truth. The fate of Gaza will not be decided solely by those who drop the bombs or those who endure them, but by the millions who choose whether to look away or to rise. History has shown that the arc of justice does not bend on its own. It is pulled, often against fierce resistance, by those who refuse to accept that brutality and impunity are the natural order of things. The window to act is not endless, and each day of hesitation costs lives. * Dr Reneva Fourie is a policy analyst specialising in governance, development, and security. ** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL, Independent Media or The African.
