‘Who is that bullet going to hit’ — families of SA troops in DRC haunted by gunfire in voice notes

Members of the M23 rebel group in the streets of Goma on 29 January 2025. The rebels, supported by Rwanda, have tightened their grip on Goma, the capital city of North Kivu in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Stringer)

By Vincent Cruywagen

6 Feb 2025

The rattling of machine guns blazing in the background of voice recordings sent by South African National Defence Force soldiers stuck in the Democratic Republic of Congo are giving their families sleepless nights. They spoke to Daily Maverick about their constant anguish.

An aunt, parents and a wife in Saron, Western Cape, 146km from Cape Town, have heard these dreadful messages, and they say the only way to erase them is for the South African government to bring the remaining SANDF soldiers home alive instead of in body bags.

So far 14 soldiers have been killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) while fighting M23 rebels, who are backed by the Rwanda Defence Force. The South African soldiers were part of the Southern African Development Community Mission in the DRC (SAMIDRC), which was mandated to disarm the rebels.

Their bodies were to be repatriated on Wednesday, 5 February, SANDF chief, General Rudzani Maphwanya, told Parliament on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Maphwanya and Defence Minister Angie Motshekga briefed MPs in the joint defence committee about the deaths of and injuries to South African soldiers during the fighting, which erupted on 23 January.

Maphwanya did not explain how the bodies would be repatriated or how this had been negotiated, but one of his officers said the SANDF had been working through the Southern African Development Community and the UN Monusco peacekeeping force. The South African forces are deployed in both SAMIDRC and Monusco.

Read more: “Bodies of SA soldiers killed in DRC to be repatriated, Parliament told, as MPs grill SANDF and Motshekga”

Families have lambasted the government’s indecision over releasing the estimated 2,000 remaining soldiers who are stuck in two facilities in the regional capital of Goma and nearby Sake.

Read more: About 2,000 SA troops remain trapped in DRC with no clear rescue plan

A wife and one mother were willing to speak to Daily Maverick, but the mother of a third soldier was too sick and traumatised to talk about her grief while she worried about her son’s safety.

One soldier still in Sake said in a message to his wife that he did not want to comment at the moment, while families have asked that the names of their loved ones in the DRC not be mentioned because the SANDF has requested soldiers to refrain from communicating directly with the media.

DRC SANDF One of the SANDF soldiers trapped at Sake camp in the Democratic Republic of Congo is a driver of armoured artillery vehicles. (Photo: Supplied)

‘My son is a peacemaker’

On Wednesday, 5 February, Caroline Kordom, the aunt of a 33-year-old soldier stranded in Sake, spoke to Daily Maverick about her anxieties and strong displeasure with how the government is handling the matter of SANDF soldiers still stuck in the DRC.

Kordom and her mother, Carolina, who died in 2015, had raised her nephew since the age of eight. He completed his military training at the Oudtshoorn Military Base in 2013. He drives a Ratel, an infantry battle vehicle. He is married to a soldier in Upington, who selected Kordom as the family spokesperson.

Kordom said their ordeal began on 23 January when she first heard about SANDF soldiers being shot in the DRC.

He wasn’t aware of what was waiting on him in the DRC.

According to Kordom, the SANDF does not even inform wives about the situation in the DRC, or the dangers her husband is facing.

With tears welling, she said: “He’s more than just a nephew to me. I reared him as a son. My son is a peacemaker, not a fighter. The voice notes he sent, combined with the sound of machine guns in the background, continue to haunt me. It’s like a stuck record playing continuously.

“Listening to voice notes, the thought occurred to me that they were shooting at him. The bullets could have hit any of them. They were in the bunker bolstered with sandbags to determine who was shooting at them. If you heard the voice notes it was quite unsettling, because who is that bullet going to hit.”

Caroline Kordom. (Photo: Vincent Cruywagen)

A child standing on a grave watches as members of the Congolese Red Cross and volunteers carry victims of the recent conflict in a cemetery in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, on 4 February 2025. More than 900 people were killed and about 2,800 injured in the past two weeks in Goma amid fighting between the M23 rebels and government forces, the World Health Organization said on 3 February. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Stringer)

Members of the Congolese Red Cross and volunteers bury victims of the conflict in a cemetery in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, on 4 February 2025. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Stringer)

The deadly skirmishes in the DRC, she said, were not something he had been prepared for, or informed about by the SANDF management. Years ago he had been a member of the UN-led peacekeeping mission in Sudan, where he drove an armoured truck and did not encounter any truly dangerous situations.

On Friday, 31 January, after she bought international airtime for him, he sent the distressing news that SANDF troops must share their meals with the rebels, that the insurgents are among them, and that they only receive lunch or dinner.

This was enough, she said, to drive any mother or relative insane.

“During our conversation on Sunday, 2 February he told me that when he returned home he didn’t want to leave this country again for any peacekeeping mission. He wasn’t aware of what was waiting on him in the DRC,” Kordom said.

My husband’s deployment was a decision we made as a family. It took more than three years for us to feel comfortable with this decision.

Unsure when the 2,000 remaining soldiers, including her son, will return, Kordom warned that if this did not happen they would return home in body bags.

“If my son dies, along with others, the guilt must be laid on the steps of Parliament, and President Cyril Ramaphosa must be held accountable,” she said. “The South African government has blood on their hands because 14 soldiers were killed.”

At her nephew’s home in Upington his wife has hung a fresh SANDF uniform on the cupboard door, waiting for his return.

In Upington a new uniform is waiting for one of the SANDF soldiers stuck in the Sake camp in the DRC. (Photo: Supplied)

Family decision to deploy husband took years

According to Josephine Smith, also from Saron, the decision to deploy her husband to the DRC had rested with the family, and had not been made on the spur of the moment.

Her husband has served in the SANDF for nearly 29 years, and this is his fourth deployment to the DRC.

“My husband was at the airport in Goma where they were attacked, but he escaped unscathed,” she told Daily Maverick.

The Department of Defence said that on Monday, 27 January M23 rebels fired mortar bombs at Goma airport in eastern Congo, killing three South African soldiers.

Read more: “Four more South African soldiers killed in Congo, defence department says”

After Smith relayed Daily Maverick’s request to speak to her husband, he sent a message on Tuesday that he didn’t want to comment at all at this stage because the attacks were not on them.

Smith said he had been in frequent communication with her since the conflict began, and she had kept the family and relatives informed.

“My husband’s deployment was a decision we made as a family. It took more than three years for us to feel comfortable with this decision. You must be mentally and physically ready to send your husband and wife.

“The psychologist and everyone prepare you for anything that may occur. It is something that you must consider before saying yes. You must prepare yourself for anything that may occur. A person does not want his or her mind to be involved in that, but you think and rely that everything will work out in the end and they will return safely,” she explained.

Smith added that the death of the 14 troops was heartbreaking, and she couldn’t begin to imagine what their families were going through. It was “unreal” how they coped.

Despite being left in the dark about when the remaining soldiers will return home, their families have set up a WhatsApp chain for daily updates on what is happening on the ground at the Goma and Sake camps. DM

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Africa

‘My son is a peacemaker’

Family decision to deploy husband took years