The political stance aired by the SANDF chief, General Rudzani Maphwanya, during his recent visit to Iran and the differing responses within the ANC to his violation of military protocol (The Mercury, August 22) should provoke alarm regarding South Africa’s constitutional future.
In terms of military protocol, official statements by military personnel concerning foreign policy and political alliances are strictly off limits. Maphwanya’s disregard for that protocol should have earned him a severe reprimand and produced a prompt retraction by the Department of International Relations.
The fact that those responses have not taken place and that within the ANC there is division between two ministries on the matter – Defence and Foreign Relations – not to mention the silence of the Office of the President, is symptomatic of the political implosion and disarray within the ANC.
A study of the reasons military coups take place in Africa is extremely disquieting, given the conditions within South Africa, which more than match those reasons. Here they are: power struggles within the ruling elite, frustration and loss of faith in democracy for failing to deliver services, high unemployment, rampant crime, severe economic hardship and impoverishment, sheer incompetence of elected leaders, the fragility of the rule of law, and external geopolitical factors.
According to the Cline Centre of the University of Illinois, between 2001 and 2017, there were 33 coups and attempted coups in Africa. Since 2020, there have been nine military coups, the most recent being in Niger, Gabon and Mali. The allure of power is a human failing as old as history itself. A weak or failed civilian government provides a tempting invitation to seize power for those who see the opportunity to enrich themselves and elevate their lifestyles.
Having the confidence to violate military protocol while in Iran, General Maphwanya must have anticipated that he was not risking his military career, as the subsequent craven acceptance of his conduct by the Defence Ministry has confirmed. Thus emboldened, how might this situation influence Maphwanya’s aspirations?
Addressing a summit meeting of the Organisation of African Unity in June 1994 on the failure of governance in Africa, South Africa’s newly minted President Nelson Mandela stated, “We must face the matter that where there is something wrong in how we govern ourselves, it must be said that the fault is in ourselves.”
Mandela’s words ring darkly for South Africa, given the history of Africa’s coup disease.
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