WSM on chilling actions by untouchable SANDF chief’s Iranian visit that multiplies SA economic chaos

General Rudzani Maphwanya, whose surname in his native Venda means “to crush”, is far from the politically appointed puppet assumed by many commentators. He is a battle-hardened warrior who commanded SA’s most significant military action since 1994 when 200 SANDF troops defended the CAR president against 7,000 rebels for three days. This reality introduces a chilling aspect to statements the General made during last week’s visit to Iran, an act threatening to torpedo SA’s diplomatic efforts to moderate US tariffs that threaten a hundred thousand jobs in the motor industry and agricultural sectors. William Saunderson-Meyer, author of the Jaundiced Eye, discusses the implications with BizNews editor Alec Hogg.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.For more information on the Battle in Bangui, listen to our explainer podcast below.BizNews Reporter.When the head of South Africa’s defence force, General Rudzani Maphwanya, landed in Tehran, he did more than shake hands and pose for photographs. He delivered a message that has rattled Pretoria, unsettled Washington, and raised a chilling question back home: who is really in charge?Maphwanya, a battle-hardened soldier with a long record of service, did not arrive as a rogue operator freelancing foreign policy. His trip bore the stamp of officialdom. He told the Iranians he came with greetings from President Cyril Ramaphosa and Defence Minister Thandi Modise. He described the visit not as military diplomacy but as a political mission. He met Iran’s top brass and spoke of officer exchanges, research cooperation, and deeper ties between the two countries.This is not the behaviour of a man who went off-script. And that is what makes the moment so dangerous.A general with blood and history on his handsMaphwanya is no lightweight. He commanded South African forces during the 2013 Battle of Bangui in the Central African Republic. Two hundred troops faced down seven thousand rebels to defend a sitting president and the business interests of powerful South Africans. Twenty-seven soldiers died, the highest toll since democracy. Allegations still hang over that deployment, that our troops were there not for peacekeeping but for the protection of ANC-linked ventures. Maphwanya knows those secrets. He knows, as the saying goes, where the bodies are buried.He later led operations in Mozambique, pushing back Islamist insurgents who threatened a multi-billion dollar gas project. Again, allegations swirled that politicians saw opportunity in the chaos, using the trade routes for illicit business. Maphwanya was there too, watching politicians grow fat while his soldiers bled.So when he stood in Tehran, praising Iran as an ally, it carried a weight that cannot be brushed aside as the musings of a tired old soldier.Ramaphosa’s impossible dilemmaIf Maphwanya acted without authorisation, Ramaphosa should have hauled him back in handcuffs. He didn’t. And he won’t. Because the general is virtually untouchable. He has history, loyalty in the barracks, and files of knowledge about ANC-linked deals on the continent. That is why this moment lays bare Ramaphosa’s weakness.The president insists he did not sanction the visit. But this is the same president who has been called out for untruths by the Zondo Commission and the Phala Phala inquiry. Whether he knew or not, the fact remains that South Africa’s head of the defence force openly contradicted him on foreign policy. If Ramaphosa is telling the truth, then the chain of command has collapsed. If he is lying, then the president is playing a dangerous double game. Either way, the Republic is weaker for it.Old wounds, new dangersMaphwanya turns sixty-five in November. That makes this his last chance to carve a legacy, to make a statement before retirement. The timing looks deliberate. His message in Tehran landed while South Africa’s police service is itself in turmoil, with Lieutenant General Mkhwanazi publicly defying his minister.For the first time since democracy, South Africa faces a situation where two of its most powerful security chiefs are openly breaking ranks with politicians. It is the kind of crack in the armour that leads other African states towards coups and authoritarian rule. We tell ourselves it can’t happen here. Yet each week the impossible seems less unthinkable.The bodies in IranSouth Africa’s connections with Iran run deeper than Maphwanya’s speeches. Telecommunications giant MTN has been accused in US courts of helping the Iranian Revolutionary Guard target American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those cases are advancing, and Ramaphosa himself chaired MTN during key years of its Iranian expansion. The stakes are immense.It raises the question: was Maphwanya’s trip a rogue provocation or a calculated move by factions inside the ANC and the defence force who see South Africa’s future tied closer to Tehran and further from Washington? If it is the latter, then the country is sleepwalking into confrontation with the United States. And sanctions, when they come, will cut deep.The Republic of no consequencesFrom the Battle of Bangui to Cabo Delgado, from the Oyster Box hotel in Durban where police generals drink Johnny Walker Blue on taxpayer tabs, to Tehran’s parade grounds, the pattern repeats. Powerful men act without fear. Politicians shrug. No one is punished. South Africa lives up to the bleak label: the Republic of no consequences.But there are always consequences in the end. They just arrive late, brutal, and unexpected.The question now is whether South Africans, civil society, the opposition, and the media can rouse themselves in time. Or whether we continue to drift, waiting until strategy collapses the moment, as the old saying goes, that someone smashes us in the face.General Rudzani Maphwanya has thrown down a gauntlet. The president can pick it up or let it lie. Either way, the world is watching, and the clock is ticking.

WSM on chilling actions by untouchable SANDF chief’s Iranian visit that multiplies SA economic chaos

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