
By Gillian Schutte
During his 30 June 1960 Independence Day Speech, Patrice Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) declared, “We are going to see to it that the lands of our country truly profit its children, so that no foreigner will be able to enrich himself at our expense.” His belief that Congo’s mineral wealth belongs to its people—a stance contributing to his assassination—continues to resonate today. Decades later, the DRC remains mired in foreign interference and the relentless extraction of its vast mineral resources, valued at over 24 trillion dollars. Central to this issue is Western imperialism, which enforces a system of multinational extraction through local intermediaries.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa illustrates how postcolonial African states become entangled in global capitalism instead of serving their own populations. The General Industries Workers Union of South Africa (GIWUSA) criticises, “The SANDF adventure in DRC is imperialist in its class character, aims and purpose” (GIWUSA, 28 January 2025), reflecting widespread anger that these deployments often advance corporate interests rather than humanitarian goals.
For generations, Western corporations—supported by governments in the United States, Britain, France, Belgium, and others—have sought to control DRC’s mineral-rich regions to meet the demands of high-tech manufacturing, consumer electronics, and military industries. This exploitation dates back to Belgian colonialism under King Leopold II, whose obsession with rubber and ivory set the stage for ongoing foreign predation. Today, under the pretext of “stability” and “democratic governance,” Western powers use financial institutions, trade agreements, and military interventions to ensure that Congolese minerals flow to their corporate coffers. Meanwhile, local populations suffer from violence inflicted by foreign-backed militias and state security forces serving transnational business interests.
The neocolonial African elite has failed to dismantle these exploitative structures, thereby acting as part of the same oppressive machinery. South Africa’s foreign policy under the African National Congress (ANC)—initially seen as a leader of emancipatory politics—has instead allied with multinational corporate interests both domestically and internationally. Ramaphosa’s rise from a trade union figure to one of South Africa’s wealthiest mining magnates illustrates the shift from revolutionary hopes to direct collaboration with neoliberal and imperialist forces. Although Ramaphosa frames South Africa’s interventions in the DRC as “peacekeeping,” in reality, South African troops find themselves protecting extraction infrastructure rather than the well-being of Congolese communities. GIWUSA states, “It is our blood, the working class, blood they are willing to sacrifice for their war, loot and profits,” emphasising that local soldiers bear the brunt of these endeavours.
M23 Rebellion: Proxy Wars and Regional Manipulation
One of the most contentious flashpoints in the region has been the ongoing role of the M23 rebellion in the DRC’s eastern provinces. This militia group, operating with alleged support from Rwanda—often called the “Israel of Africa”—battles for control over strategic territories and the minerals within them, equipped with an advanced arsenal that heightens the conflict’s intensity. Tensions between Ramaphosa and Rwandan President Paul Kagame have flared repeatedly over accusations that Rwanda provides funding and resources to M23. Kagame, seeking to maintain Rwanda’s dominance in eastern DRC, finds his actions conflicting with South African interests. Kigali has repeatedly refuted these claims, while Pretoria insists it is intervening in the region to stabilise it. Observers argue that this diplomatic dispute avoids the deeper issue: the fact that, very often, external involvement is not for Congolese security but rather for securing mining concessions. M23’s presence is thus part of a broader landscape of foreign-backed conflicts determining who profits from the DRC’s natural riches (WoltersMay, 23 January 2024).
Regional alliances further complicate matters. Tanzania, despite being a member of both the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the East African Community (EAC), chose to deploy with SADC, aligning its military efforts with broader Southern solidarity instead of regional alliances influenced by Rwanda. Burundi accuses Kigali of supporting anti-government rebels and is actively fighting against M23 alongside the Congolese army. Meanwhile, Uganda, with a turbulent history with Rwanda, aligns more closely with Kinshasa, further isolating Rwanda and weakening any unified regional response (WoltersMay, 23 January 2024).
SAMIDRC Deployment: High Costs Amid Domestic Crisis
South Africa’s participation in the Southern African Mission in the DRC (SAMIDRC) is financially burdensome and uncertain, potentially damaging both South Africa and SAMIDRC’s reputation. Historical data indicate that South Africa has spent upwards of 500 million dollars annually on military deployments abroad, with SAMIDRC alone costing an estimated 200 million dollars per year (WoltersMay, 23 January 2024). These funds are diverted from critical domestic needs such as healthcare, education, and infrastructure development, exacerbating South Africa’s socio-economic challenges, including high unemployment, rising poverty and starvation.
Additionally, inadequate support and resources for South African National Defence Force (SANDF) soldiers increase the human cost of these deployments. Soldiers have faced insufficient artillery and equipment, limited medical support, and inadequate training for the complexities of DRC’s conflict zones. As well as endangering their lives it also severely reduces SAMIDRC’s mission effectiveness. Despite the recent death of 13 South African soldiers in DRC, Ramaphosa looks set to continue his deployment of the SANDF to protect Western capital interests entrenched in Congolese mining operations, elevating corporate profits over national welfare and aligning with neoliberal and imperialist agendas (GIWUSA, 28 January 2025).
Diplomatic Stalemate: Ramaphosa and Kagame’s Failed Negotiations
In late January this year Ramaphosa and Kagame held a telephonic discussion to attempt to find a resolution to the conflict. Despite high stakes, the conversation yielded little progress. Kagame urged South Africa to halt its deployment, while Ramaphosa demanded that Rwanda cease its support for M23. Given the entrenched interests—Rwanda’s dominance in eastern DRC and South Africa’s commitment to protecting mining concessions—the likelihood of concessions from either side remains slim. This diplomatic impasse exposes broader geopolitical tensions that sustain the conflict and hinder meaningful resolution efforts.
Western imperialism’s control in the DRC is reinforced by both strategic and broken alliances. While NGOs and media occasionally highlight abuses or environmental devastation, the systemic critique of global capitalism is wilfully overlooked. Multinational corporations broker deals with Congolese elites, who siphon off profits and buy political loyalty, under the watchful eye of international investors from Washington, London, and Paris. Supposedly neutral international agencies and peacekeeping missions do little to challenge the underlying political economy of extraction. Instead, they offer legitimacy to regimes and multinational setups that keep the country’s resources partitioned for foreign consumption. Like Lumumba GIWUSA laments, “the minerals of Congo belong to its people” yet remain locked in an exploitative dynamic, “facilitating its plunder” by foreign capital and complicit Congolese power brokers.
A critique rooted in Lumumba’s insights refuses to accept that this brutal arrangement is inevitable. It highlight the need for true international solidarity that respects the agency and sovereignty of the Congolese people to own and manage their resources democratically. Such a programme would advocate the nationalisation of mines under workers’ control, the cessation of foreign military interventions, and the dismantling of corrupt patron-client relationships between Congolese oligarchs and transnational businesses.
Cyril Ramaphosa’s government, by contrast, has aligned with Western capital in a manner reminiscent of the old comprador class. By placing South African soldiers in harm’s way to uphold corporate interests and cosigning the continued looting of Congo’s vast mineral wealth, Ramaphosa cements South Africa’s role as a regional guardian of global extraction rather than a champion of meaningful transformation.
Meanwhile, activists and labour organisations have begun protesting outside US and other Western embassies to highlight ongoing resource exploitation supported by these powers. GIWUSA has urged local and international campaigners to direct their anger not only at official government buildings but also at diplomatic missions that shield corporate profiteering under the guise of maintaining peace. The hope is that such demonstrations can amplify the plight of Congolese communities and expose deeper structures of global injustice—structures in which both Western countries and African political elites bear responsibility.
For as long as the DRC’s resources remain a commodity to be seized by the most powerful actors, conflict will not subside. From the perspective of genuine liberation ideology, these crises end only when the Congolese working class, supported by solidarity movements worldwide, wrests control of the country’s wealth out of the clutches of predatory corporations and their state allies. In that future, those figures who were once heralded as potential liberators but who chose to stand on the side of global capital—groomed by the very forces they were supposed to oppose—will be remembered for what Frantz Fanon describes as betrayers of the broader project of emancipation. His question posed in The Wretched of the Earth still rings loud: “So, comrades, how is it that we do not understand that we have better things to do than follow Europe?”
The survival of Western imperialism in the DRC rests on betrayers such as Ramaphosa, who seemingly does not care that without a decisive break from the logic of capitalist accumulation, any rhetoric of “peace” in the DRC remains hollow. Instead, he sends Black soldiers to certain deaths, echoing his stance on the Marikana miners, who were slaughtered in cold blood following his infamous call for “concomitant action”—a directive that demanded immediate and ruthless suppression of labour strikes, resulting in the deaths of 34 innocent miners.
References
– General Industries Workers Union of South Africa (GIWUSA). 28 January 2025.
– Southern Africa Resource Watch (SARW). 2023. “Extractive Industries and Local Communities in Central Africa.”
– Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. 1961.
– Lumumba, Patrice. 30 June 1960. Independence Day Speech.WESTERN IMPERIALISM IN THE DRC
First Published in Sunday Tribune 2 Feb 2025