A TOP level mission, headed by cabinet secretary, Mr Jakes Gerwel, left for Tanzania yesterday to assess the practical implications of South Africa contributing to an international peacekeeping force on the Zaire Rwanda border.
Earlier, President Nelson Mandela had signalled South Africa's willingness to contribute to a peacekeeping operation. More than a million Rwandan refugees, mostly Hutus, have been cut off from humanitarian aid by fighting between Zaire based Tutsi rebels and the Zairean army.
Mr Mandela emphasised, however, that South Africa would not act unilaterally, but in tandem with the countries of the region, including Zaire, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania, and under the auspices of the Organisation for African Unity or the United Nations.
His statement came after discussions with Tanzanian elder statesman, Dr Julius Nyerere, who had been delegated to liaise with Mr Mandela after a regional summit of African leaders in Kenya on the crisis.
After the summit South Africa announced that it was suspending a £12.25 million agreement to sell arms to Rwanda, whose Tutsi dominated army has been accused of aiding Tutsi rebels in Zaire.
The head of the defence forces, Mr Georg Meiring, expressed confidence in the ability of his soldiers to fulfil whatever role was allotted to it. However, the Defence Force Minister, Mr Joe Modise, struck a slightly negative note when he warned that South African soldiers had not been trained in peacekeeping and might over react if they were shot at and lives were lost.
Mr Modise said the costs of the peacekeeping intervention would have to be borne by the UN, although it will be a UN sanctioned international mission, not a UN mission per se.
But whatever Mr Modise's reservations, diplomatic pressure on South Africa to exercise its responsibilities as a major African region power was intense yesterday and there seemed little doubt that South Africa would contribute soldiers to the mission.
In a separate development, Mr Mandela sent Judge Richard Goldstone to Zambia to negotiate a postponement of the pending election there to enable former Zambian president, Mr Kenneth Kaunda, to participate. Dr Kaunda is barred under a ruling disqualifying any Zambian from standing whose parents were not born in Zambia.