The NdB Sunday Show: (Ret.) Col Chris Wyatt - Malema, Motsepe, Motshekga - and no seat for SA on Trump’s Peace Board…

In the latest edition of the NdB Sunday Show with Chris Steyn and US Intelligence Analyst retired Colonel Chris Wyatt, he says he suspects that there is a sealed warrant in the United States for the arrest of Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Commander-in-Chief Julius Malema over calling for the killing of US President Donald Trump a year ago. Wyatt was reacting to Malema’s latest utterance in which he labelled Trump a devil and a fool for his controversial actions against various countries. Wyatt gives his take on possible future leaders of both the African National Congress (ANC) (including Patrice Motsepe) and the Democratic Alliance (DA). He lists the reasons Trump didn’t invite President Cyril Ramaphosa to his Peace Board at Davos. He also slams South Africa's failure to support that vote for a special session by the United Nations Human Rights Council over deteriorating human rights conditions in Iran. He expresses outrage over the promotion of Brig Genl Solly Lechoenyo - accused of murdering Hawks Investigator Lt Col Frans Mathipa - to head Special Forces, and charges that Defence Minister Angie Motshekga is “destroying what's left” of the South African National Defense Force (SANDF)..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..Watch here.Listen here.Edited transcript of the interview.Chris Steyn (00:01.254)Welcome to the NdB Sunday Show with me, and US Intelligence Analyst, retired Colonel Chris Wyatt. Welcome, Colonel.Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (00:12.302)Chris, thanks a lot for the warm welcome. I could syre some of that warmth over here from South Africa, the Southern Hemisphere. Just got buried under a couple feet of snow here in the midst of supposedly the biggest storm in ages here in the East Coast of the United States. So it's not a white Christmas, but it's certainly a white late January.Chris Steyn (00:29.916)Well, onto another political storm. Economic Freedom Fighters Commander-in-Chief Julius Malema calling US President Donald Trump a devil and a fool for his controversial actions against various countries.Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (00:46.402)Well, yes, I did see that. Malema, who was supposed to or was due to be sentenced. Instead we heard the heartstrings of a social worker talking about how his children will suffer if he goes in prison. Well, that's the fate of all criminals' children, unfortunately. And he's a convicted felon in South Africa for his firearm activity, let alone all the other things he's gotten away with over the years. But this one he's convicted for. So this social worker tries to pull at the heartstrings and says, all the people who benefit from his humanitarian services would suffer. What humanitarian services?I'm still waiting, Chris, on the school that the EFF promised to build, what, six, seven years ago in the Eastern Cape. They haven't built anything. All they do is tear things down. This is the most hateful, vile, repulsive excuse for a political party that you can imagine anywhere. You know, when people said the same thing about Jews in Germany, people looked the other way in the 1930s. Look what's happening in South Africa now. And Ramaphosa needs to pay attention to this. His government needs to pay attention to what's going on here and quit protecting his hate speech. You know, when someone uses a very foul and vile slur word, begins with letter K, they are taken to court by the South African Human Rights Commission. Yet Julius Malema can call for the murder of people. He can insult the former president. By the way, he called for killing Trump a year ago. I have no evidence of it, but I'm pretty confident that there is a sealed warrant for his arrest in the United States over that. The Secret Service does not take that lightly. It's not surprising the United Kingdom denied his visa last year. He tried to lanmbast them. He wanted to go to UK. And also he's avoided going to Kenya, where he's been invited several times. And, you know, these are countries that have extradition treaties with the United States. So I don't know that I have no evidence of that. But, you know, things begin to add up over time. He runs his mouth and he is a vile repulsive human being. And he has a whole troop of these 30 percent crowd that want to follow him and believe he's done something. But they don't look at the track record. What has Julius William had done to improve anyone's life? Not a darn thing. Even the cadrees around him flee his party and go to MK or go elsewhere eventually. The man has accomplished nothing except a massive collection of Breitling watches, $10,000 suits, and Land Rovers that are beyond his wealth, beyond his ability to earn an income. He's never accomplished or done a single thing in his life, yet he runs around screaming and yelling at people. And this is a very dangerous individual. He always has been for a long time.And now the EFF is a collapsing political party, virtually non-existing in KwaZulu Natal, for instance.Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (03:11.95)It's a dangerous, when a beast is wounded, it's most dangerous and EFF is lashing out. But they're not alone, the ANC is doing the same thing, looking for a Right Wing boogie man once again.Chris Steyn (03:22.31)Chris, what did you make of the conduct of the EFF supporters? went to East London in droves to support their commander in chief?Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (03:33.004)Well, if that's the best they can imagine, it can put together maybe 7,000 supporters chanting and dancing like a bunch of clowns. If that's the best they can put forward to support them. I wasn't that impressed. Wasn't really that impressed. I mean, the people leading a mild insurrection in Minneapolis are turning out larger numbers than the EFF showed up. It's minus 30 degrees Celsius in Minneapolis. It's plenty warm in East London. Now, what do I make of the protesters? They're welcome to protest as long as they had a permit. That's perfectly legal. They want to protest. But singing songs to murder people, that's not acceptable. And that's quite frankly something that should be stopped. The fact that the South African courts declared that to be hate speech was the right decision. The fact that courts later reversed that decision and said people are allowed to call for the murder of people based on their skin pigmentation is repulsive and shows you just how dangerous it is to live in South Africa if you're a racial minority.Chris Steyn (04:23.758)If he were to be sentenced to jail, what do you think would happen?Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (04:30.37)Well, a lot of people are speculating saying that, of course, what will happen is a repeat of 2021 when Jacob Zuma was ordered to go to prison for his contempt of court when he refused to testify and got up. In fact, you know, previously, people forget he got up and just walked out of the court. Disrespect to the court. I'm not answering your questions. Just left. Nothing happened to him then. But then when he failed to appear, he was sentenced on June 29th of 2021. And I predicted on the day that there would be massive outrage and there would be protests and there would be riots in KwaZulu-Natal.But who could have predicted essentially what was a ANC internal riot that pretty much destroyed huge chunks of KwaZulu-Natal, billions of rands of damage, billions of dollars of lost business opportunity. 354 people officially dead. We all know the number is much higher than that. Nothing of the like will occur. The EFF doesn't have that level of support and they are cowards. Just look what they did at Brackenfell. At Brackenfell, a couple of people stood up to them, they ran away. When the police turned one water cannon on them, they fled in every direction. And their response was, without anybody harassing, to go by and vandalise a car dealership. That's the sort of nature of many of the followers of this organisation. It's less a political party and more a domestic terrorist operation in some respects, many of its followers. Yeah, that's how I…your eyes getting big from me saying that. …what else can you say about them? Their actions amount to domestic terrorism: harassing, attacking people, spreading racial hatred, dividing people by race. You know, the whole Rockefeller thing was contrived, absolute utter nonsense. Nobody's running to schools in KwaZulu-Natal screaming, how come only black kids are here? How come all the teachers are black? Because only Zulus live here, duh. We don't import people here. How come the teachers at Brackenfell are only white and coloured? Duh, because the only people who gi there are white and coloured. Get a grip on reality. This is a party that is more a fake movement that enriches Julius Malema and his lieutenants than it does anything for any South Africans. I seriously doubt that there'll be anything other than minor scuffles and minor property damage and vandalism. The thing is that hopefully the South African Police have got their act together. I'm not going to hold my breath on this one. They should have learned their lesson from 2021. I doubt that they have. But I don't think that the EFF represents a threat that some people think that it represents. It is a dying party that never had the support that its voting base turned out for. People voted for it, but when you're handed it,Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (06:47.736)…KFC…and a t-shirt on Election Day. Some people are desperate and vote for whoever they think they should vote for.Chris Steyn (06:54.352)So President Trump invited 50 world leaders and every BRICS nation, apart from South Africa, and President Cyril Ramaphosa ti his Peace Board at Davos.Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (07:06.926)Well, I don't blame President Trump. First off, it's not South Africa he didn't invite. Essentially, it's the African National Congress he did not invite….the African National Congress rather than the Government of National Unity because the entire foreign policy of South Africa is under the control of the African National Congress. No other party in the GBU has any say. And the ANC acts and rules as if they secured two thirds of the vote in the popular election and they barely got 40 percent. It's beyond cheeky and arrogant of them, but that's just who they are. Of course, we see their Foreign Minister go on CNN's misinformation, White Genocide documentary and called Donald Trump leader of a white supremacy movement and falsely lied to the public in South Africa, claiming the Refugee Programme is a white supremacy programme, completely ignoring the fact that the programme is and always has been since 10th February when it was published on the USMP website in South Africa last year, a programme for Afrikaners and racial minorities. And all the media in South Africa continue to ignore the fact that there are black South Africans who've come over here. There are Coloured South Africans and there are Indian South Africans come over here in the Refugee Programme because it doesn't fit their narrative and they continue to lie to people. And the public is unaware of this because it's buried. So back to the point, and this is leading to the point about Trump and Davos, why in the world would Donald Trump invite the ANC who lie about him on CNN, whose President runs around at the G20 summit making jokes about bad things happening? The arrogant, haughty behaviour, the mocking of the president of United States, why in the world would he invite Cyril Ramaphosa? He won’t be invited to a kindergarten creché after he leaves office, probably not even in South Africa. He will not be remembered as a great statesman, despite the effort to pump himself up that way. His behaviour will be exposed eventually. And Donald Trump didn't invite him. And it's understandable. …he invited Russia and China. I mean, these are countries the States has real issues with over Ukraine, over China's trademark infringement, its copyright theft, its trade policies, its abuse of its neighbours in South China Sea. We have genuine issues with China.And here it is, we don't invite South Africa's ANC. Now, why is it? Because South African ANC can't help itself. Now they have Iranian warships from a terrorist organisation, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, participating in exercise. And they don't even have control of their military. South African military seems to have gone rogue and they have no political control over it. It's a very dangerous situation. I don't think that Trump wants to have someone like Cyril Ramaphosa at this table because Ramaphosa will try to make it all about Ramaphosa when it should be about South Africans and it should be about peace, but it's not.Chris Steyn (09:29.518)And South Africa's failure to support that vote for a special session by United Nations Human Rights Council to try and deal with the deteriorating human rights conditions in Iran.Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (09:47.343)Well, the Human Rights Council is trying to do the right thing. Its composition is a little bit wonky. That's one reason why the United States left the council a couple of years ago. Donald Trump, you know, and I'm not talking about Trump, but the Human Rights Council, sorry, I little stuck there in the Trump story. But the Human Rights Council of United Nations wants to condemn what's happening in Iran. Of course, the ANC continues to lie to the world. We're a neutral. South Africa's foreign policy is neutral. We don't favour anyone. Really? You didn't condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022? Almost the entire world did. Strange how half the countries that refused to do it are countries in Africa. And the same thing here, if you look at the those who abstain, half of them are African countries. But then half the African countries voted to condemn Iran. You know, this this nonsense that South Africa is neutral. I mean, who do they think they're playing for? What audience do they think that is? Nobody's buying that story. Not even for a microsecond. Even the DA and the GNU now is calling for a Legothla to discuss foreign policy, which is damaging South Africa's position in the world. And of course, the white leftist liberals with the pink and purple hair and the black supremacists will run around and scream, America, America, this has nothing to with America. This is United Nations. We weren't even in the council for a vote. This is United Nations. What about the rules-based order, ANC? We hear all the rules-based order. Well, the rules-based order is asking you to condemn what happened, and you can't even bring yourself to do that. That just exposes the African National Congress for what they are. They're radical leftist Marxist party that is in league with Chinese communists who murdered people, who have imprisoned the Uighurs, the Muslims unjustly, with the Russians who have invaded their neighbours repeatedly. It's not just Ukraine. People forget about ….Azerbaijan and Armenia and what they did to the Estonian banking system when they tried to destroy the …by attacking their electronic systems. The Russians are bullies to the neighbours. They've always been bullies to their neighbours because, quite frankly, for centuries, they were bullied by the Mongols, the Tatars and a whole bunch of other people. You know, they have this inferiority complex, they have to strike back. But, you know, these are rogue states that are out of control, and these are the ANC's friends. How does this help South Africa? China has a trade surplus with South Africa and takes raw materials and ships finished goods back to South Africa. How does that help South Africans? The US buys finished goods from South Africa and some raw materials, mostly finished goods, and the beneficiation is in South Africa.Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (12:08.652)But the ANC wants to have friends in low places. And you know what? If you lie down with dogs, you pick up fleas.Chris Steyn (12:15.91)Chris, what do you think of all the speculation around Patrice Motsepe for President?Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (12:24.686)Well, this is a story that people have been talking about quietly for the past couple of years. Who's going to succeed? Who's going to go beyond Cyril Ramaphosa's term? And Motsepe's name has been mentioned several times, and he's purportedly a brilliant businessman. But again, I revert back to fact that he, like many of these so-called brilliant businessmen in South Africa, were handed vast fortunes. To Patrice Montsepe's credit, he's done a lot with it, but he also benefits immensely from the laws that have put things in the favour of certain skin pigmentation. Again, I'm not trying to attack t him to the fact that he's a smart businessman, but this is an effort to find someone that has a business angle that's supposedly not tied to the ANC deeply, that can stand above the fray, which is what they thought they got with Cyril Ramaphosa. And they got quite the opposite. Cyril Ramaphosa has doubled down and taken the National Democratic Revolution on steroids, and because he's never been solid. As a Venda, he never had a strong support base ethnically inside the ANC. He's not a Xhosa which is additional power base of the ANC. He's not a Zulu, which is the Jacob Zuma faction, the Radical Economic Transformation, so to speak. So he's never really been solid. So he's always treaded this ground where he's promoted things that I don't even think he really believes in. I don't think Ramaphosa even has any conviction whatsoever. He just does what he has to do to look big, look important, survive. And it seems to work for him on some level, but he is the man that's led the ANC from 65% to 40% and declining from there as we speak. Patrice Motsepe, you know, he’s given the choices the ANC has, I mean that's probably one of the better options they have. I mean what have we got: Ronald Lamola: seriously the man…who lies every time he goes behind the camera and distorts the truth, couldn’t tell the truth if it smacked him in the face with a two-by-four, and what else you got Gwede Mantashe: He’s on his way out thankfully, and then you've got to Fikile Mbalula: that guy, that guy is a loose cannon. I mean he's he's he's out of control. He can't even control himself. He's freaking out and attacking members of his own party every time you turn aroundSo the options aren't very strong. The bench is very thin for the ANC. Unlike 20 years ago when they had a deep bench, they could call on lots of talented people to lead the party. But I don't think it matters who leads the ANC in 2029. The ANC is in for a rude awakening. Unless they refuse to give up power, they are gonna find themselves not the largest party in a coalition ruling South Africa.Chris Steyn (14:44.432)What about the Democratic Alliance? Many people in the party are very keen for John Steenhuisen to be replaced. Who do you think would be somebody who could take the party forward?Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (14:58.872)Well, I noticed today in today's media that people are suddenly promoting Siviwe Gwarube as a candidate for senior leadership in the party, either the federal executive or possibly even lead the party. I don't know that that's a wise decision. There are a number of talented people in the Democratic Alliance, which makes it really sad because the Democratic Alliance has arguably lost its way. It's always been leftist centre political party. It's not exactly centrist or conservative. There's nothing right or wrong with that. That's just where they've been. And they admit that. But the party does have some very talented people and it's really lost its way.They drew a line in the sand over the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act. They drew a line in the sand over National Health insurance, line in the sand over Expropriation without Compensation. And then when all these things come into play, they just roll over and play dead as part of the Government of National Unity. They've done virtually nothing. We've gone to court, gone to court. Ooh, wow. I noticed that none of these laws have been reversed yet, have they? Meanwhile, they're implementing them in places locally and it's a disaster. So, the DA has truly, truly lost its way.And we've got these scandals with John Steenhuisen and who tried to deny their scandals, but they're actually scandals. They are scandals. I mean, I don't know. If I were you, Chris, I would be embarrassed if I couldn't pay off an $8,000 credit card bill and a company had to take me to court to get a judgment against me as a leader of a political party in a major country. I mean, that's not a minor thing. How do you become a 48-year-old who has no savings, no property, nothing whatsoever to your entire life built up - and you've spent your entire life, essentially most of it, in government, other than briefly being a real estate agent, in government. And you've had a secure salary where you know you're gonna get a paycheck every pay period. You don't have to scratch out a living, making a business, did I make money this week, can I pay myself? You don't have to be a day worker, will I get picked up for work? You've got a secure job. So you know how much money is coming in. You can't budget and plan for that. And when Steenhuisen says, well, you know, that's nobody's business, I beg to differ, that is people's business. We're supposed to trust a person who can't balance their checking account and pay their bills and accrues no assets after three decades in public service with the budget, with financial matters for the people. We're supposed to trust that. I'm sorry. That just doesn't fly. This guy is also a failed Minister of Agriculture. He ignored Foot and Mouth Disease for 15 months before developing a plan. Now, to be fair, he inherited the disaster that was Agriculture. That's not John Steenhuisen's fault.Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (17:20.13)But instead of spending his time devoting it listening to ranchers and farmers who were begging for assistance in December of 2024 and talking to people in April 2025 and May of 2025 before it became a nationwide disaster as it was spreading when action could have potentially been taken to avert billions of Rand in losses, he’s in Vietnam dancing the night away trying to get trade deals to sell ground nuts and things like that. That is not not a success. So in the party, who is there? Well, there's lots of names and I'm afraid even to mention people because then people start targeting. But there are some talented people. If you look at inside the party, Chris Pappas is a very talented person, the mayor of Umgeni in KZN. You've also got Francois Rodgers, pretty talented guy down there in KZN. In the Western Cape, you've got Geordina Hill Lewis, who seems to be quite popular and effective as the Cape Town mayor, although he has his detractors. We've seen other people who've been sidelined, very talented like Emma Powell and Andrew Whitfield. I'm not saying that they're of the stature to lead the party right now, but these are all people in the party that I think are talented and rising and that are capable of leading in positions to Democratic Alliance. But instead there seems to be this old boys network that's there, plus Helen. Helen's still around there. And she seems content at the moment of becoming a city councillor to take over the mayor. What I love about this situation, Chris, in South Africa is everyone's talking about Helen is running for mayor and now Herman Mashaba is gonna run for ActionSA too. Really, running for mayor? For who? Nobody votes for the mayor. that's right, the council members vote for the mayor. It's a parliamentary system. So how are you running for mayor? You're not. You're running for the city council and you're trying to get votes for your party so that it gets enough votes so they can elect you. But there's no way, God's green acre, that the Democratic Alliance gets 50 plus one in the Johannesburg City Council. Not gonna happen. Not in this century, most likely, the way things are going. So how do they become mayor? Through a coalition. Well, how do you do that? Well, you broker backroom deals with parties. So there is no competition for mayor. This is just a joke. Same like president. Nobody's running for president in South Africa. The Parliament votes for the President. It's an undemocratic system. It's unfair to the people of South Africa. They don't get to vote for the mayor. They don't get to choose who the mayor is. Look at what happened in Nelson Mandela Bay with a brilliant mayor for the DA who accomplished much with that council, even though it was fractuous and they barely had the lead in the coalition. And that was Athol Trollip. Did an amazing job there despite the assaults and threats on his leadership the entire time. Nelson Mandela Bay turned around in less than 18 months while he was mayor. But you know, this is the DA.Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (19:41.901)They are convinced that their Blue Wave is their Blue Wave and it's going to accomplish what they want. And I'm not going to try to dissuade them from that. I wish them well. It's a shame that they've strayed so far and they've betrayed the voters of South Africa when these things like BELA, NHI, and especially EWC come along. And they say they have a plan. Well, hopefully their plan will pan out because right now it's not really planning out for people whose property was stolen…up in Polokwane. Still haven't got their land back, illegal land occupations, East London illegal land occupations, Northwest illegal land occupations…government doing nothing about it. In fact, the cops were complicit in the Eastern Cape in the land being stolen from property owners. So, hey, there you go. Who's going to be the person? I don't know. But Siviwe Gwarube’s name is being mentioned now for the federal executive that would, of course, replace Helen. And that's presuming she becomes a councillor and then mayor. Well, look, Helen's a brilliant politician and I wish her very well. Helen Zille is one of the most amazing politicians in South Africa. And when she was the mayor of Cape Town, one of the most brilliant mayors on the planet, I wish her very well. but she's going after poison chalice. I wouldn't want to drink out of that.Chris Steyn (20:41.596)Now, Chris, as a military man, you can tell us about the classified weapon used by the US in Venezuela that President Trump says it's secret. He can't talk about it, but he mentioned it. Tell us about it.Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (20:57.962)Well, I think what you're talking about is Directed Energy weapon, which I can neither confirm nor deny because I wasn't there. I wasn't there. I don't know what was used or not used. Accounts from Venezuela said that they were knocked down by something that just blew them over. Presumably some sort of Directed Energy weapon. I that's that's all I know about it, Chris. I wouldn't know any more possibly about it other than what the press is talking about. It is interesting. …these are things from Science Fiction. You know, you watch movies of 21st Century, you know, and futuristic movies…You see where you point something at someone and a blast wave throws them backwards and knocks them unconscious. We also know that the US has accused Cuba of using kind of like Directed Energy weapons against our diplomats. They send this white noise that gave a number of our diplomats headaches and made them ill. That's the claim. But those diplomats all came back to America and they all recovered, but they weren't well when they were in Havana. So I don't know what's going on there.But the point of the story is that I don't have an answer on that one. I've heard talk…Trump is prone to embellishment and hyperbole on every issue that there is out there. If there is a Directed Energy weapon, that's fascinating. I think we'd all want to know about it. There may not be one. There may be an awful lot of embellishment from the people on the ground and of course, Trump playing into it. So I don't know, Chris. I'm not playing. I'm not toying with your emotions on this one. I don't know. I've heard people talk about it. There is no such thing that was available when I served in military six years ago. I can tell you that much.Chris Steyn (22:25.948)Maybe it's because it was still Classified.Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (22:28.622)Well, I held the highest level of classification while in the military. So that doesn't mean I have to, need to know and would know about it. It could be developed without my knowledge, but now maybe it's there. Maybe it's not. I guess if it is, I mean, it'll be employed more often and we'll have examples of it. And then they won't be able to deny it if it exists.You know, it's interesting because when it comes to classified things, of course, your classification protection doesn't end just because you leave the service, just because you leave the government, you're still required to protect those things.But we have a satellite system, as many countries do now. And until the late 1970s, we never acknowledged that we used it to spy on people. Of course, the answer is, like I said before, I can neither confirm or deny that, because I can't. If I confirm it or if I deny it, then I'm denying it exists, and maybe it does exist. So that's the right phrase. But President Carter, in a press briefing, let out that we were using satellites to spy on the Soviets. And until then, we're never in a confirmation. By him doing that later, we were allowed to say that, yes, there are satellites that spy on people. But had he not done that to this day, we'd probably still be sitting around going, satellites spying on people? I can neither confirm or deny that. Meanwhile, Google Earth is showing you pictures of people's backyards and their garages. You know, it would be so silly today. But Carter released that. And by doing that, he declassified it. And that's the president's prerogative. That's kind of what, when after Trump and his Mar-a-Lago residence, they said that he had classified information. But as president, he had the authority to declassify anything at his whim. Now, it may not be wise to declassify lots of things because sources and methods could be compromised, but Trump couldn't possibly have stolen classified information because all he had to do is say it's declassified. Doesn't even have to take action. It's not like he fills out a form. People have to go behind him and do that. If they didn't do that, that's on them. Anyway, but yeah, again, it would be interesting to see if this thing is real. I'm curious. Maybe we could use the Minneapolis.Chris Steyn (24:16.54)Imagine that you suddenly can't use your weapons, that you're disabled completely from firing back. It must be the weirdest feeling.Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (24:21.665)Exactly.Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (24:26.68)Well, I saw that that's I saw that Ryan Reynolds movie the other day again, six or whatever it is, where he is supposedly a billionaire, develops all this technology and develops these super magnets. So he slides this thing and everything metal just flies across the room on one side of the ship. All the weapons, all the knives and everything. So your gun is just ripped out of your hand that he's sliding back the other way. Who knows? Maybe something like that's in the works.Chris Steyn (24:48.54)Well, any other developments on your side of the pond that could affect us?Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (24:55.202)Well, the Davos situation is interesting. The press are having a field day with that saying that Trump is destroying the world, the rules-based order. That's a narrative. That isn't true. Trump is trying to reinforce the rules-based order by not letting America being taken advantage of. America has been becoming a debtor nation by financing the world and allowing unfair trade practices and allowing our security to be at risk by allowing nexus of threats to manifest around the world. And Trump is simply trying to reinforce what had been the rules-based order, which is ironic because I'm probably one of the few analysts that actually put it that way. Meanwhile, Mark Carney's being praised for his speech in which he called for the dissolution of the rules-based order, the existing order. Mark Carney, the Canadian Prime Minister, got up and gave a speech at Davos in which he said, we’re middling powers can't rely on the rules-based order. We have to come up with our own solution. I'm sorry, and Trump is the one ripping it apart? No, it's Canada and countries like that are trying to end the rules-based order. Trump is simply calling things out for what they are.What does the United Nations accomplish other than UNESCO and eradicating smallpox in the wild back 40 years ago? What does it accomplish? Did it end conflict in Africa? No. Has it brought peace to Cyprus? No. It stopped the war from there, but has it brought peace? Has it brought peace to the Middle East? No. What does do other than refugees and a bit of peacekeeping, much of which is funded by the United States? Without the United States, wouldn't be happening. And without the countries like Bangladesh that you're looking to make money off of peacekeeping, there wouldn’t be any peacekeepers because very few countries are truly committed to actual peace They talk a good game, but they fail to show up, you know, where they at.I mean, hey, by the way, you know speaking of peace and speaking of human rights, where is the ANC and South Africa on the Myanmar case? You know that genocide case that the Gambia brought in 2019 is in front of the court now finally years later; it’s in front of the court - and there are seven nations that have signed up with the Gambia. Canada is one of them. Give them credit United Kingdom is anotherBut strangely, South Africa, which is concerned about Gaza to the nth degree and what's happening there, is still not a friend of the court for the Myanmar Uyghur case. Not Uyghur, excuse me, the Rohingya. Uyghur's in China, that's a other story for the Rohingya. But the Rohingya are Muslims, they're brown people, they're being oppressed, they're being genocided out of existence. Where is the ANC? Did I miss something? They're the paragons of virtue.Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (27:16.93)They stand up for the little guy. They believe in the rules-based order. They believe that genocide should be stopped in its tracks, but they're nowhere to be heard. And that case is going forward with seven friends of the court who've joined the case. So eight countries now are going against Burma or Myanmar in this case, which Gambia started, which opened the door, by the way, for the ANC to try this against Israel for Gaza.But Trump has formed his Board of Peace without the ANC. Isn't that interesting, Chris? We'll go back to that point. The Board of Peace was founded or formed by Trump to deal with Gaza, but he's looking for it to be something bigger, be something effective. I don't know if he's going to be successful. I mean, some of the countries that have invited to it, I scratch my head, but Trump has created this Board of Peace and its raison d'être, its purpose for existing initially, is to sort out Gaza in a peaceful solution. But the champion for the Gazans, for the Palestinians is not even there. Isn't that fascinating?And in fact, they have nothing to say about it. They're very mum on the subject. They're not even complaining they're not part of it, which is strange to me. If there were true champions for the Palestinians and it wasn't just a marriage to convenience for fellow travelers, you would think that they'd be squawking, hey, why weren't we invited? How come we're not part of this? We're the ones that actually led the ICJ case against these miscreants. I'm sorry, I'm not buying it.Chris Steyn Chris, I almost forgot. Let us talk about the SANDF and the various crises there.Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt Well, Chris, the SANDF, the South African National Defense Force, is something strange going on. We saw last year that the Chief of the Force went to Iran and basically pledged loyalty with the Iranian forces in the midst of this diplomatic tension between the United States and South Africa. It was a very puzzling situation. Of course, after the fact, the Minister of Defense tried to cover up saying that, he's allowed to go. But it appears that he went of his own accord and certainly spoke out of turn. He spoke in a fashion that basically dictated South Africa's foreign policy. This is a military that's to be subservient to civil order. Our military is subservient to civil order. The South African military is also supposed to…It's not supposed to be like Mali or Niger where the military runs the country. That's not what's supposed to be happening. But that's exactly what happened here when your Chief of Defence went there and basically stated what foreign policy was. And he clearly was off the reservation. Behind the scenes, there was a lot of teeth gnashing, a lot of anger about this within the ANC about how this could happen. But this is what happens when you put a weak leader in charge of ministry, Angie Motshekga destroyed Basic Education in South Africa. Now she's destroying what's left of the South African National Defense Force through her ineptitude and her lack of leadership and total lack of coherence. And what's really sad about is they actually have someone in the Department of Defence who actually has the gravitas, the experience and the ability to lead this. And that is the deputy minister. That, course, is back to Holomisa, but he doesn't seem to have any role here. So what are the crises? Well, the latest is the Iranian ships that came to participate in Will for Peace, Operation MOSI 3, renamed Will for Peace. The government apparently under Cyril Ramaphosa sent the order to tell the Iranians they should go home. And according to multimedia reports, we've seen Peter Fabricius of the Daily Maverick cover this extensively and others. It appears that the the SANDF defied the President's order. They did the press release and of course it got pulled down within two hours, but we all caught it. We have the digits, have the evidence, we have the receipts of them posting it. They proudly promoted that they weren't just there as observers, they were participants. They weren't even supposed to be there anymore. So they're defying the government. That's a pretty shocking situation. But it gets even worse. Now we have this 372 million Rand being spent for the Defence Forces Day in Limpopo by the Defence. 372 million Rand, Chris? Seriously? You can't hold a parade in Bloemfontein…Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt …or in KZN at one of your military bases, and spend a couple thousand rand for water and for chairs. That's ridiculous. 372 million rand. This is like countries out of control in central and West Africa where dictators and military potentates rule. Who does this? That's ridiculous. Even the United States military, doubt for its Grand Parade that Trump threw for 4th of July to celebrate our army's 250th birthday, mind you. It wasn't just a parade. It was the 250th anniversary of our military. I doubt we spent 372 million rand, the equivalent of that. Maybe we did, but I mean, we're also a country six times population and a billion times your economy size. You know, a little bit embellishment there, not quite a billion, but you get my point. On top of this, we've now got the situation where the person on January 1st was promoted be the Commanding General of the South African Special Forces is charged with murder, charged with murder in the assassination of the SAPS Lieutenant Colonel who was investigating what happened with the military a couple of years ago. He is one of seven co-accused. The other six were granted bail, but now that's been revoked by the National Prosecuting Authority. So those people are supposed to be in jail by this weekend, but he is free. He's now been promoted to be the Commander of Special Forces. I don't understand how you take a military seriously. You have a person, he's not accused of speeding, he’s not accused of spousal abuse, not that that's not a good thing, but he's not accused of fraud. But even if he's accused of fraud, you normally would sideline some of that. You wouldn't promote them. That doesn't mean his promotion would go to the sidelines. It could just be held while you investigate this. But this man is charged with murder in a conspiracy to murder a government official. This is not a minor thing, Chris. What kind of military does this? What kind of civilian control? Where is Motshekga in oversight of the military? How in the world do you approve this man for a promotion? Now, he may be innocent. I'm not accusing him being guilty. Not at all… allegation. But the fact that he's not even a murder accused, he's a murder charged. He has to defend himself against these charges. And in South Africa, we know in the courts you almost have to prove your innocence, which is backwards. In America, you have to prove your guilt, but in South Africa, you almost have to prove your innocence. So he's on the back foot, charged with murder.Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt And he's been promoted to be the Commander of Special Forces. What does that say about the military? What is this, a rogue operation run by a bunch of clowns? I mean, they just do what they want. You know, during the 2021 crisis in KwaZulu-Natal, when the SANDF was needed, when Ramaphosa finally woke up four days after the crisis was underway and people were already slaughtered and shops were already torched and chaos was raining in KwaZulu-Natal and in parts of Soweto, when Ramaphosa finally drove down in his $10,000 suits and his $100,000 BMW motorcade…jumps out, someone's life work in a shopping plaza, and he takes a spade and shovels what's left of their business and smiles for the cameras like a crocodile, dumping it into a wheelie bin, totally disconnect from what's happening. They sent the military. The military was so unprepared, they didn't have rations. We all saw them jumping the queue at Shoprite, the ones that weren't burnt down, at Pick ‘n Pay, going to the front of queue while thousands of people queued up to buy food because there was no food, because all the other shops were torched. They didn't even have food. The police didn't have bullets. This military, couldn't defend. I don't want to insult because there are real soldiers in the military and there are a few real leaders. But the people running that organiaation really, really are out of control. They defy the civilian leadership. At least that's the story we're being told in the media. And it seems to be the case. They promote charged murder accused. They spend hundreds of millions of rands on a birthday celebration. There's nothing to celebrate. These people sent soldiers to the Congo with no body armour, no Kevlar helmets, no boots, no tents, no Medivac. And they didn't even train these troops properly. Did you see the way they were firing back at the rebels? I mean, it's like Liberia in 2007 all over again. Shooting like this. Seriously? That's not how you train soldiers. That's not how they return fire. There's discipline. Total chaos.I feel for the soldiers in the SANDF. It's out of control. And this is frightening.So what's next? I'm not saying there's gonna be a coup, but I mean, if this is what a military does to civilian leadership, what happens when push comes to shove? What happens when ANC loses control? Will they have control of the military in 2029? Will the military stand up like they do in Niger and Mali? I'm not predicting a coup. I'm not saying that. I would imagine that that isn't possible in South Africa. I would hope so. But I mean, South Africa has long history of...Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt…military and powerful military controlling things. I mean, the late stages of the National Party rule under Apartheid, the country is pretty much run by the Presidency, the Police, the Intelligence and the Military. It was a Security State. South Africa is certainly not a Security State now. It's a Lack- -of-Security State. But the bottom line here is what's going on with the SANDF and where is the civilian leadership? How is Angie Motshekga the minister? She should have been fired last year when that general went to Iran. He should have been removed. She should have been removed. Send a clear signal that the government controls the military, not the military control of the government, or doing what it wants to do. Right now it looks like the SANDF s doing whatever it wants. And this is very disturbing, Chris, very disturbing.Chris Steyn Thank you. That was US intelligence analyst, retired Colonel Chris Wyatt on the NDB Sunday Show with me, Chris Steyn. Thank you, Chris.Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt You're very welcome. Thanks Chris. Take care.

The NdB Sunday Show: (Ret.) Col Chris Wyatt - Malema, Motsepe, Motshekga - and no seat for SA on Trump’s Peace Board…

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