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SOUTHERN AFRICASouth Africa and the DRC:Has Rhodes passed on the baton?Shawn Hattingh (ZACF)In the heat of the struggle for statueslike that of Rhodes – the arch-symbolof British imperialism – to be pulleddown, and in the midst of the horror ofthe recent xenophobic attacks in SouthAfrica, few people seemed to noticean announcement by Jacob Zuma thatSouth African troops will remain at warin the Democratic Republic of the Congo(DRC) for another year.Of course, Zuma made this announcementon behalf the South African ruling class –comprised today of white capitalists anda black elite mainly centred around thestate, Black Economic Empowerment(BEE) and ‘traditional’ royal families.In this there was a real irony that whileRhodes’s likeness was falling from itsperch at the University of Cape Town, andimmigrants from other parts of Africaand Asia were being attackedbecause of sentiments stokedup by a rehabilitated relicof apartheid (the Zulu king,Zwelithini), the South Africanruling class felt brash enoughto say they will be continuingtheir own imperialist war inthe DRC.Like in all wars, includingthose promoted by the likesof Rhodes, it is not the rulingclass that are actually doingthe ighting in the DRC, butthe sons and daughters of theworking class. Relecting onthe First World War, AlexanderBerkman noted that theworking class are not really sent towar to save the poor or workers, butto protect and further the interests ofthe rulers, governors and capitalists oftheir countries. 1 This applies equallyso today in the case of South Africantroops’ involvement in the DRC. Indeed,what South Africa’s war in the DRCshows is that the South African rulingclass don’t just exploit and oppress theworking class in South Africa, but theworking class in many other areas in therest of Africa. It also shows that both athome and abroad they will use violenceto do so, including trying to turndifferent sections of the working classon one another, by amongst of thingstapping into nationalism, racism, ethnicchauvinism and xenophobia.SOUTH AFRICA’S WARIN THE DRCSouth African troops have beenstationed, in one capacity or another,for more than a decade in the DRC. Theyhave stood guard over elections, theyhave been involved in ‘peacekeeping’,and at times they have also been involvedin directly protecting the interests of theSouth African state’s ally, Joseph Kabila.In 2013, the role of South African troopsin the DRC, however, oficially escalated.Almost 1400 new troops joined theForce Intervention Brigade (FIB). SouthAfrican troops in fact make up the bulkof the FIB, with support from Malawiand Tanzania. The FIB’s task, includingthe South African troops that makeup its rump, is to hunt down and killmembers of guerrilla organisationsin the Kivu region. To do so they havebeen launching operations with the DRCmilitary against such groups.At times the combat in this war has beenierce. In one day alone during the Battleof Kibati, in August 2013, South Africantroops – along with South African AirForce Rooivalk attack helicopters – killedover 500 members of the M23 rebelgroup. Such actions have seen the M23effectively destroyed as a force. SouthAfrican troops, along with their allies inthe form of Tanzanian and DRCtroops, are now beginning tomake plans to strike at otherrebel groups in the area.The deployment of SouthAfrican troops has not comecheap. Hundreds of millionsof Rands has been spent onthis by the South African state.Most of this has gone on stateof-the-artmilitary equipmentsuch as Rooivalk helicopters,while at the same time thetroops themselves were deniedtents for months when theywere irst deployed to NorthKivu. This oversight perhapsalso provides an insight intothe nature of South Africa’s ruling class– the health and comfort of the workingclass troops they were sending to dotheir ighting in the DRC mattered littleas long as they had the equipment to killthe enemy and stabilise the Kivu region,and North Kivu in particular.ZABALAZA: A JOURNAL OF SOUTHERN AFRICAN REVOLUTIONARY ANARCHISM - No. 14 6