Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

SOUTH Africa's year-long peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo is costing taxpayers a whopping R819.6-million, according to a letter from President Thabo Mbeki to Parliament.

Mbeki told the National Assembly that he had authorised the deployment of 1 268 members of the South African National Defence Force to the eastern Congo for one year to fulfil the country's obligations to the United Nations.

The SANDF is finalising plans for another deployment to northeastern Congo, around the strife-torn town of Bunia, as part of the European Union-led UN mission dubbed Operation Artemis.

Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota sent a letter to Mbeki this week recommending the deployment to Bunia.

Mbeki's spokesman Bheki Khumalo said the President would announce his decision early next week on whether more SA troops would be flown to the Congo.

The funding of this mission has not yet been determined.

But for the mission already in progress, the UN is expected to reimburse South Africa only R200-million.

This will result in a shortfall of R619-million.

"The National Treasury advised that the shortfall should be addressed through the normal budgetary process," Mbeki said.

The force, which has been in the Congo for several months, was part of the "disarmament, demobilisation, reintegration, repatriation and resettlement" programme of the UN, he said.

The deployment included an infantry battalion group of 950 members, a support group of 100, an engineering company of 175, a ferry unit of 15, a water well-drilling unit of 12 and 16 military police, Mbeki said.

Lekota said this week that, as the biggest economy in the region, South Africa could not avoid its peacekeeping responsibilities.

But last week, he told Parliament the SANDF required a bigger budget to fulfil its peacekeeping functions in Africa.

The SANDF had deployed twice as many soldiers to regional peacekeeping operations than envisaged in the defence review, Lekota said.

The budget, however, had not increased, he added.

Defence spokesman Sam Mkhwanazi said troops were sent to the Congo in phases as part of the UN Monuc 3 mission.

The last contingent left Pretoria at the end of May.

South Africa has offered to participate in Operation Artemis and is expected to send between 120 and 200 troops.

Two Oryx helicopters will also be sent to the Ugandan town of Entebbe, where the 1 500-member multi-national force - consisting mostly of French troops - was sent from earlier this month.

The German Parliament this week approved the deployment of 350 troops to the region.

Belgium, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Sweden and Ireland have also said they would contribute to the force to end ethnic conflict in the area, which has claimed hundreds of lives in recent weeks and resulted in about 50 000 deaths since 1999.

The area has stabilised since the arrival of the force, but remains heavily militarised.