The poorly written statement on Friday was almost tragic. “Following a series of reports containing serious allegations concerning the President’s clear instruction on how Exercise Will for Peace 2026 should be conducted in particular the participation of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Minister of Defense, Hon. Angie Motshekga would like to place it on record that the instruction was clearly communicated to all parties concerned, agreed upon and to be implemented and adhered to as such.”
Leaving aside missing commas and an entire sentence without a subject, the ramshackle naval exercise in False Bay this past week has cruelly exposed, again, what most South Africans already know — the political leadership of our country has deteriorated to the point where it has become a menace to us all.
The South African, Russian, Iranian and Chinese navies supplied a few vessels to run offshore drills in an exercise planned months ago. President Cyril Ramaphosa asked for it to be postponed from its original November date to avoid it coinciding with the G20 summit in Johannesburg. He worried the Iranian presence might annoy the US, which not long afterwards said it wasn’t going to attend the summit anyway.
As the delayed exercise was finally due to get under way, Ramaphosa was again spooked by the spectre of President Donald Trump, who was promising (lying again) to stop the Iranian government murdering protesters on the streets of its biggest cities. Ramaphosa instructed his defence minister to instruct the navy to instruct the Iranians to remain on the sidelines of the sea drills.
But the Iranian ships steamed out three days in a row to join the exercise, triggering, for the third time in just a few months, a real crisis in the chain of command from civilian leadership to the military. It is no longer a joke. Last August the chief of the defence force, Gen Rudzani Maphwanya, made a highly tactless show of political support during a visit to Tehran. The government fell over itself trying to distance itself from the general.
Did he simply disobey? A board of inquiry (hopefully an external board) must pass judgment quickly. And then heads must roll
In November the head of the navy, Vice-Admiral Monde Lobese, criticised the state, and the National Treasury in particular, for underfunding the defence force to an extent he likened to “sabotage”. Motshekga called his remarks “inappropriate” and threatened to take steps to deal with him.
Now this blatant show of disobedience in an operation again featuring the navy. Lobese would have been one of the senior officers to whom Motshekga would have transmitted Ramaphosa’s instruction.
Did he simply disobey? A (hopefully external) board of inquiry will sit immediately.
And then heads must roll. However woeful Motshekga may be as a minister, the constitution says “the primary object of the defence force is to defend the republic … in accordance with the constitution”. It is not the job of soldiers to make political statements and they certainly may not ignore lawful civilian orders, however inconvenient, self-serving or idiotic they may be. It is downright dangerous for political leaders publicly to tolerate so much obvious insubordination and disobedience in the military. Unless something is done, it may become unstoppable.
The problem for a government that has lost its way on foreign policy, economic policy and social policy is that, this far into an administration, finding its way back is almost impossible. I genuinely believe Ramaphosa has lost all interest in his job, a torment made worse by the fact that it is hard to imagine his deputy, Paul Mashatile, becoming the head of state.
Our sense of drift is aggravated by the fact that the DA voice in opposition is utterly lost now that it sits in the government. It, too, is largely mute on foreign policy (though ghost-written articles in John Steenhuisen’s name may try to raise a voice), on the economy and on society. And it is a DA minister these days who has to rejoice in the number of pupils getting through matric on a 30% pass mark.
But there is a way to navigate the mess of a changing world if we can somehow find a way back to principles we easily can keep track of. If we are to be nonaligned, can we not be properly nonaligned? Trade with whom you like, yes, but let’s not ally ourselves with governments that attack other countries, abuse their citizens, steal elections, jail critics, ban books and censor opinion. Let’s not play war games with people actually killing or crushing or smothering their own citizens. How hard can it be?
Let’s return to some standards we can all be proud of.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.