Days after Cyril Ramaphosa was sworn in as president in February 2018, he told an SA National Defence Force (SANDF) interfaith service that the country celebrated “the change of leadership in the governing party without any appetite for senseless bloodshed”, because military leaders were abiding by the constitution’s supremacy.
Over 11 tumultuous days — the opening of parliament was delayed — the ANC national executive committee had pushed back against Jacob Zuma’s administration after years of public outrage and protests over state capture and corruption. In December 2017, Ramaphosa narrowly became ANC party president.
Ultimately, Zuma resigned in a televised speech late on February 14. Within 24 hours Ramaphosa was elected by MPs and was sworn in by the chief justice. On February 16 he delivered the delayed state of the nation address, and two days later his comments of SANDF acceptance of civilian primacy followed.
But in mid-July the same year City Press reported military intelligence had detected grumblings of mutiny among soldiers, specifically former uMkhonto we Sizwe members, during those combustible 11 days. Ramaphosa was advised to resolve tensions, though senior military leaders had played down the mutiny threat, the article said, insisting the military was “above petty party politics”.
Subsequently, the military command council publicly said: “The SANDF has never in its 24 years of existence undermined the institution of state as embodied by the executive, the legislature and the country’s judiciary.”
Fast forward seven years and the July 2025 edition of SA Soldier carried similar sentiments in a piece written by SANDF chief Gen Rudzani Maphwanya — Ramaphosa’s choice in June 2021 — under the headline “Staying above politics is part of military discipline”.
“We live in a democratic society, yes — but as long as you serve, your personal politics have no place in uniform. That means no political slogans, no party colours, no commentary — not in public, not on social media, not in your unit and not in our ranks.” Defence Web quotes the general’s writing: “The military must remain neutral, apolitical and professional... This is not a request. It is doctrine.”
That Maphwanya felt the need to speak out in the way he did in July raises questions about what was being said in the ranks and among the generals. Does this relate in any way to the recent coups d’etat prattle from minister in the presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni?
But if neutrality is doctrine, Maphwanya violated it. His statement recorded in Iran hardly a month later showed political intent and policy meddling in some of SA’s toughest geopolitical diplomacy pickles — its International Court of Justice case alleging an Israeli genocide in Gaza; and Iran, where SA telecoms group MTN is now the subject of US investigations.
Maphwanya’s insistence that he did not talk to journalists is cack-handed deflection. The general is sufficiently well travelled — Cuba, Japan, Iran, France seem to have been destinations in recent months — to know the drill at such interactions. By his actions he’s joined a long line of arrogant SA military leaders, confident of being protected from scrutiny by their ministers with invocations of national security.
Retired defence chief Solly Shoke flew first class when ministers were ordered to business. It’s on public record the defence minister dodged parliamentary questions on this in 2014. Ditto Maphwanya and his minister, who has seemingly simply accepted his explanations about those comments in Iran. Finish and klaar.
But the general’s caper comes at a fragile moment in a fractured SA, where public trust in democracy has plummeted while strongman tactics are gaining populist traction. A mid-2023 Afrobarometer survey showed “a growing majority” of 72% of South Africans would ditch elections in favour of an unelected government if it delivered security, jobs and housing.
The lack of accountability, and repercussions, for Maphwanya’s conduct unbecoming plays right into that fragile state of democracy.
• Merten is a veteran political journalist specialising in parliament and governance.
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