Mapisa-Nqakula's CAR Memorandum about-turn

The Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, now claims the second Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), signed in December 2012, between South Africa and the Central African Republic (CAR) is not a public document.

This is a major about-turn and suggests the Minister is now reverting to damage-control mode desperately trying to cover up what really happened, presumably to try and firewall President Jacob Zuma from the political fallout from the CAR.

Yesterday, the ministerial spokesperson Sonwabo Mbananga, reportedly said the MoU was now not a public document and would not be made available to the public.

The Minister herself waved around a copy of a document, thought to be the second MoU, at the 02 April 2013 Joint Standing Committee on Defence meeting saying that "any MoU was treated as a public document".

However, there is also some doubt whether the MoU actually exists: there is, for some strange reason, no mention of the MoU in the thirteen "significant achievements" of the Defence International Affairs Division in the very detailed Defence Secretariat Third Quarterly Performance Report on Performance Against Plan for FY2012/13 over the Period 01 October 2012 to 31 December 2012.

Whatever the case, it is absolutely imperative that the second MoU be made public because the SANDF were deployed to the CAR, in terms of the international obligations set out in the second MoU, signed in December 2012, between South Africa and the CAR.

If the second MoU does not exist, or was signed by a person representing the CAR who did not have authority to sign international agreements, it would add significant weight to the fact that the SANDF deployment to the CAR, was unconstitutional. 

The fact is that the MoU is a public document and should be lodged with the Department of International Relations and Cooperation and then tabled in Parliament.

I will, therefore, be submitting an application, in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (No. 2 of 2000), for access to the second MoU, signed in December 2012, between South Africa and the CAR, in order to force the Minister to hand over what should be a public document.

We cannot sit back and allow the Minster to cover up what really happened in the CAR.

Statement issued by David Maynier MP, DA Shadow Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, April 17 2013

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