SA to pay for DRC mission

South Africa will have to fork out US $860,000 for its upcoming peace mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) said on Wednesday. The SANDF director of joint operations, Brigadier-General Jan Lusse, said at briefing in Pretoria that the United Nations would reimburse South Africa for only 25 percent of the cost. This meant that the South African taxpayer would have to pay the bulk of the costs of the country’s peacekeeping duties in the DRC. This would include a special allowance of about US $785 a month for each of the 165 SANDF members that would take part in the mission, Lusse said.