In the six month period April to November 2024, South Africa was paid R213 million for peacekeeping and peace support operations by the United Nations (UN) and R474 million by the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
The UN payment was for services to the its mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – MONUSCO – according to the response to a Parliamentary question posed by Democratic Alliance (DA) defence and military veterans spokesman, Chris Hattingh.
The North West province-based National Assembly (NA) Member of Parliament (MP) told defenceWeb following Minister Angie Motshekga’s reply to his question there “will definitely be more in the same vein” next year. It is, he said an ongoing attempt to gain clarity on performance of SA National Defence Force (SANDF) personnel and equipment deployed to not only the UN mission in the DRC, but also to the Southern African Development Community mission in the DRC (SAMIDRC), which has had its mandate extended to December 2025.
Among the numbers supplied in the ministerial reply are that South Africa was owed R959 million by the UN in the 2019/20 financial year and received R749 from the world body. The following financial year saw payment of R446 million against a South African account of R875 million – a shortfall of over R428 million. The UN owed South Africa R540 million in 2021/22 and paid R658; R467 million was owed in 2022/23 and R507 million was received; and R376 million was owed and R530 million paid to South Africa in 2023/24.
Over the last five financial years, R3.217 billion was owed by the UN, while R2.890 billion has been received (this excludes funds from April 2024 when the new government financial year started).
Hattingh will ask why in more detail come 27 January when Parliament reconvenes after the year-end break. He sees the short payment, for want of a better term, being due to, among others, penalties imposed and UN deductions. The written Ministerial reply to his question gives an inkling where it states the deductions and/or penalties are due to the actual contingent of equipment not in line with UN Letters of Assist and Memorandum of Understanding.
On payments made by the southern African regional bloc, the Motshekga reply has it “there is no formal signed agreement with SADC for any reimbursements for deployments the SANDF is involved in”. The deployments referred to are the now ended SADC Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM) and SAMIDRC, which on 15 December commenced its second year of operations in the eastern DRC. Against this, the reply further has it R474 million was received from the SADC between April and November 2024. In 2021/22, the SADC paid South Africa R33 million, plus R210 million in 2022/23, and R206 million in 2023/24.
The Department of Defence (DoD) Debtor Section continuously follows up with the UN on outstanding amounts. Outstanding UN invoices are paid by the world body’s Department of Peace Operations (DPO). Payments, the response has it, are made “as and when” the UN receives payments from contributing countries and organisations – “often leading to delayed payments to the [South African] DoD”.
