Please find attached a soundbite by Chris Hattingh MP.
The Democratic Alliance is outraged that the Chief of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), General Rudzani Maphwanya, used an official visit to Tehran this week to engage in blatant political diplomacy far outside his constitutional and professional mandate.
According to Iranian state media, General Maphwanya went well beyond military-to-military discussions. He publicly pledged “common goals” with Iran in global affairs, endorsed Tehran’s political positions on the war in Gaza, and called for deeper strategic alignment, including joint projects and student exchanges.
This is not the role of a military chief. Foreign policy is the domain of the elected Government of National Unity and must be conducted through the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), not by an unelected general freelancing on the world stage.
This reckless grandstanding comes at a time when South Africa’s relations with key democratic partners, especially the United States, are already under severe strain.
The recent collapse of Exercise Shared Accord 2025, cancelled by the US over South African breaches of bilateral agreements, has already inflicted a serious blow to decades of humanitarian, training, and peacekeeping cooperation.
Publicly embracing a sanctioned regime with a track record of regional destabilisation will only deepen our diplomatic isolation, risk retaliatory measures, and worsen our economic vulnerabilities.
The DA will be demanding urgent answers from the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans and the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation on:
- Whether the political content of General Maphwanya’s statements in Tehran was authorised at any level of government;
- What commitments, if any, were made on behalf of the Republic of South Africa; and
- How government intends to repair the serious damage caused to relationships with democratic allies whose trade, investment, security, and development partnerships are vital to South Africa’s stability.
The SANDF’s job is to lead and manage the defence force, not to act as an unsanctioned political envoy. Allowing our most senior military officer to make partisan foreign policy pronouncements is strategically reckless, diplomatically irresponsible, and economically self-defeating.
South Africa cannot afford to have its international standing further sabotaged by political adventurism from the military’s top brass.