It remains unclear who in the South African armed forces or the government Iran should be allowed to continue participating in the recent navy drill held in Simon’s Town, Capetown after President Cyril Ramaphosa issued an instruction for Iran’s vessels to be withdrawn from the display.
The exercise, part of a broader strategic cooperation among BRICS countries and their partners, includes Iran alongside Russia, China, South Africa, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Brazil, Egypt, and the UAE.
Pressure from pro-USA lobby groups saw President Ramaphosa getting cold feet ordering that Iran’s participation be reduced to observing the exercise, a directive that was either misunderstood, miscommunicated or simply ignored raising questions about the authority of the government on the country’s armed forces.
Defense Minister Angie Motshekga has since appointed a Board of Inquiry into the Naval exercise to establish how Iran continued to participate fully.
The DA wants Motshekga to be held accountable for the confusion saying the inquiry she has instituted is
“Minister Motshekga must appear before the Portfolio Committee on Defence without delay and account for what the President ordered, how that instruction was handled, how it aligned – or conflicted, with prior public statements by senior SANDF leadership, who took the relevant decisions, and why the order was not acted on immediately,” said the DA Defence spokesperson Chris Hattingh in a statement.
Hattingh believes there’s been a trend of delinquency in the country’s armed forces that needs to be reigned in.
“This controversy did not arise in isolation. The Chief of the SANDF, Rudzani Maphwanya, made public remarks in Tehran that spoke positively about strengthening military cooperation with Iran.
“A consequence of these remarks was the creation of a public signal of deepening defence engagement at a time when Iran is diplomatically sensitive and heavily sanctioned. When reports later emerged that the President had instructed that Iranian vessels be excluded, it raised serious questions about whether prior military signaling conflicted with, or complicated, the execution of a presidential directive,” said Hattingh.
Some have pointed fingers at SA Navy chief Monde Lobese believing he must have decided to defy the president this following a meeting with his Iranian counterpart and subsequent comments in which he’s quoted as praising the defense cooperation between the two countries, comments that some believe misrepresent South Africa’s foreign policy.
Meanwhile Action SA has added its voice to those calling for a parliamentary probe claiming the BOI ordered by Motshekga may not be enough to establish what happened.
“ActionSA believes that a genuinely independent process led by Parliament, as a constitutionally empowered body, is far better placed to get to the truth of what has unfolded and to ensure that those responsible are held publicly accountable,” said Action SA in a statement.