FACT CHECK | Mapisa-Nqakula contradicts SANDF, UN on alleged intimidation of SA troops in Sudan | News24

President Nosiwie Mapisa-Nkakula

• National Assembly Speaker Nosiwewe Mapisa-Nkakula insisted that SA troops were in danger when the order was given. Arrest former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in 2015.
• She acknowledged that there was still confusion about the matter, but blamed the government’s failure to address it.
• It was his view that the SA’s decision to disobey the order saved the army.S.

National Assembly speaker and former defense minister Nosiwewe Mpisa-Nakkula says the government avoided political implications when it defied a court order forcing it to arrest former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir in 2015 , who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes of genocide and genocide. Humanity.

The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria issued the order during al-Bashir’s visit to South Africa.

Netwerk24 reported at the time More than 800 peacekeepers feared for their lives In northern Darfur, where Sudanese troops have surrounded their positions. They feared that Sudanese soldiers would kill them in retaliation for al-Bashir’s arrest.

However, the SA National Defense Force (SANDF) denied that SA soldiers were taken hostage in Sudan.

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According to mail and guardian At the time, spokesman Simphiwe Dlamini said that the SANDF was not in danger. He dismissed the Network24 report saying that “there is not an iota of truth in these allegations”.

United Nations (UN) also denied it. It states that the soldiers are neither in danger nor have they been taken hostage.

“We have information from UNMID (the United Nations-African Union mission in Darfur) that they were not in any danger and that is why we are standing there.

“In terms of operational details, obviously, troops on the ground may have to undergo maneuvers at any time. But, in terms of whether they face any danger or are surrounded or taken hostage, no , they were not,” said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the UN secretary-general.

The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir in connection with genocide and crimes against humanity.

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However, Mapisa-Nqakula denied the SANDF in an interview Newsroom Africa on Wednesday.

He added that local peacekeepers were “besieged” by Sudanese troops on the day the court issued the order, and that the government was spared the political ramifications that would result from al-Bashir’s arrest.

He said:

“Had President al-Bashir been arrested in SA at that time, there could have been serious fighting that could have been negatively affected. We could have been defeated. We could have had serious casualties,” she said.

Mapisa-Nqakula acknowledged that there was still confusion about the matter.

He attributed the confusion to the government’s failure to resolve the issue “so that South Africans are aware of certain decisions”.