Thirteen SANDF soldiers have been killed in the city of Goma in recent days after being caught in the crossfire between the M23 rebels and the DRC army.

Analysts suggest that the soldiers’ deaths may be attributed to a lack of proper equipment.

Speaking at the Cabinet Lekgotla in Pretoria, Motshekga says she met with Generals in Goma and was not informed of any shortage of ammunition.

“I personally went to Goma and I got a briefing from all the Generals. At no stage did they say they had no ammunition. We reinforce on the basis that because there’s been this escalated hostilities, then we spoke back home with the meeting that General attended with the National Council of Arms to say it’s going to be very important for us to reinforce, to make sure that we don’t reach a stage where we don’t have. But at no stage did any of the Generals that I spoke to, even the first leader, say to me, we’ve run out of ammunition. No. Even Tanzania was reinforcing, and even itself DRC was reinforcing.”

--SABC--