The Start of a Turnaround for the SANDF?

Statement by Chris Hattingh MP – DA Spokesperson on Defence & Military Veterans:

The Democratic Alliance welcomes President Ramaphosa’s decision to institute a panel of inquiry, led by Justice B.M. Ngoepe, into the command failure surrounding the Will for Peace Exercise.

But this is no minor administrative step. When a President removes an inquiry from his own Minister and brings it into the Presidency, it signals that something has gone seriously wrong.

For the first time, the Presidency has effectively confirmed what the DA has warned from the outset: a direct instruction from the Commander-in-Chief was issued, and that instruction was not followed. That is not a procedural mishap. That is a breakdown in the chain of command.

This should never have dragged on for over a month.

The Minister of Defence promised a report within seven days of the exercise concluding. That deadline passed without explanation. South Africans were met with delays, uncertainty and silence. In any disciplined military, a breach of command authority would be addressed immediately — not allowed to drift unresolved for weeks.

If the Commander-in-Chief gives an instruction, it must be obeyed. If it was ignored, the country deserves to know by whom, why, and what consequences will follow.

Even if the exercise was operationally led by a foreign partner, it took place in South African territorial waters and involved SANDF assets. Sovereign authority and civilian control cannot be outsourced. The Commander-in-Chief’s instructions remain binding, regardless of the exercise’s multinational structure.

Equally troubling are the confidentiality provisions surrounding this inquiry. We are told the panel’s work will be secret, and that the President will decide what, if anything, is released. National security cannot become a convenient shield to obscure failures of constitutional authority. When civilian control over the SANDF is in question, transparency is not optional.

The President has now intervened. He must go further.

He must clarify whether the Minister of Defence still enjoys his full confidence, and he must commit to releasing the inquiry’s findings in full, subject only to strictly necessary security redactions.

South Africa’s defence leadership cannot operate under doubt and uncertainty. The country needs clarity, discipline and accountability and certainly not another process that disappears behind closed doors.

Where there has been failure, there must be consequences.