\n \t\t\t \t\t\t
![\"sa](\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/6c83c_2427188974.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\n \t
\n \t\t\t \t\t\t <\/p>\n
Reuters<\/p>\n
Armed South African soldiers chat with a man in Begoua, 17 km from capital Bangui, in this still image taken from video. Photo: Reuters<\/p>\n
\n
Related Stories<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Durban – President Jacob Zuma is to attend a meeting of central African leaders and international organisations in Brazzaville, in the Republic of Congo, on Friday when he may be asked to send South African troops back to the Central African Republic. <\/p>\n
The meeting of the Contact Group on the CAR was to decide how to restore stability, security, respect for human rights and democracy in the country, the Department of International Relations and Co-operation said on Wednesday. <\/p>\n
Thirteen South African parabats were killed by Seleka rebels as they took control of the country on May 23 and 24. The country has still not recovered from the chaos caused by this change of power. <\/p>\n
Zuma said last week that he had received a \u201cverbal\u201d request to contribute troops to a force which the Economic Community of Central African States (Eccas) had decided to send into the Central African Republic to restore order. <\/p>\n
He said the government would consider the request if it was presented formally, and his spokesman, Mac Maharaj, added that such a request would be considered \u201csympathetically\u201d. <\/p>\n
Eccas, the AU and the UN are members of the Contact Group. <\/p>\n
The department\u2019s statement said the AU\u2019s position was that there could be no recognition of any government that came to power through unconstitutional means. <\/p>\n
However, after Seleka took power, the central African states organisation had had to recognise \u201ca transitional structure\u201d that had been put in place to govern the Central African Republic\u2019s pending elections. <\/p>\n
The department said Zuma would convey South Africa\u2019s position at the Brazzaville meeting, which was \u201cnot to be party to any internal conflict in the CAR\u201d. <\/p>\n
South Africa\u2019s role in the country was to assist in capacity building and training under a legal framework in compliance with South Africa\u2019s domestic legislation and resolutions of the AU and the UN. <\/p>\n
The South African government would continue to play a positive and constructive role in conflict resolution and peace-building efforts, guided by the vision of an African continent that was peaceful, prosperous and democratic. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The department said South Africa recognised the Central African Republic\u2019s transitional government, based on the January 2013 agreement ceasefire signed in Libreville, Gabon. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In December, Zuma sent Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to the republic to assess the security environment and general situation which became tense after the Seleka armed campaign. The report from that mission recommended an intervention. <\/p>\n
On January 2, Zuma authorised the deployment of up to 400 South African soldiers, but only 200 were sent. <\/p>\n
(Additional reporting by Sapa) <\/p>\n
The Mercury<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Reuters Armed South African soldiers chat with a man in Begoua, 17 km from capital Bangui, in this still image taken from video. Photo: Reuters Related Stories Zuma heads to Congo for CAR talks Zuma cements SA\u2019s relations with the CAR SANDF soldier dies in hospital Zuma clarifies stance on CAR Durban – President Jacob […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-19584","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19584\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}