Illustrative Image: Scales of Justice. (Image: Freepik) | SANDF logo. (Image: Wikicommons) | (By Daniella Lee Ming Yesca) 
On Wednesday, 28 January 2026, News 24 reported that the six soldiers who were charged with the murder of Hawks senior investigator Frans Mathipa had failed to surrender to the police.
The high court had ruled in favour of the NPA in an appeal against an earlier decision to grant them bail. As a result, they were supposed to surrender to the authorities.
The court has now issued an arrest warrant for them.
This means that six officers, who belong to a Special Forces unit within our military, are currently on the run from the SAPS, after being accused of killing a senior police officer who was investigating them.
Unfortunately, their legal fees are being paid by the SANDF. As previously stated, there can be no legitimate reason for this decision.
It cannot be that they were involved on SANDF business when Mathipa was killed, and the SANDF would surely not fund the legal fees of people charged with a crime allegedly committed outside of their duties.
But this is part of a very public pattern of behaviour.
Over the weekend it emerged that despite promises by the defence minister and the Presidency, the board of inquiry that is due to investigate Iran’s active involvement in naval exercises off Simon’s Town has not yet begun its work.
Original promise broken
On Wednesday, 12 days after Defence Minister Angie Motshekga announced that a board of inquiry would report back within “seven days”, she finally appointed legal heavyweight Judge Bernard Ngoepe to chair the probe.
There was no public explanation for the delay.
Missing too is any concrete explanation for why Iran was involved in the naval exercises in the first place. Instead, the fact that so many people are leaking information so regularly on this issue suggests there is deep unhappiness with the situation within the SANDF and other parts of the government.
Unfortunately, this pattern does not end there.
Again, as News 24 reported over the weekend, the SANDF is planning to hold Armed Forces Day in Thohoyandou. The event will include a massive parade.
It is due to cost a staggering R372-million.
This from a force that did not have the attack helicopters it needed to make an impact on the military situation in Goma in the DRC last year. And surely would have needed more resources to help flood victims in Mozambique in the past few weeks.
It seems impossible to justify how the SANDF could spend so much money on one single event, when it complains so regularly that it does not have enough money to buy or maintain equipment.
Also, this event is happening in the hometown of the outgoing head of the SANDF, General Rudzani Maphwanya. While there is very little concrete information coming out of the SANDF on any of these issues, he must be a central figure.
He must know, and have approved, the decision by the SANDF to pay the legal fees of the men accused of killing Mathipa. He must also have played an important role in the planning of the Simon's Town naval exercises. And it seems incredibly unlikely that this event is happening in his hometown through a simple coincidence.
A duty to protect South Africans
None of this can be acceptable in a democratic society. Our system is very clear: the SANDF has a duty, an obligation, to protect South Africans.
It also has the further duty to spend its money in a legally rational manner. And there is no justification for its members being involved in the murder of a senior police officer.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has, so far, said virtually nothing about these incidents. And very little appears publicly known about his own personal relationship with Maphwanya.
It is true, of course, that Maphwanya, like many others in the top leadership of the SANDF, was a member of the ANC’s military wing, Umkhonto weSizwe (not to be confused with Jacob Zuma’s political party).
But from publicly available information, it appears he spent much of the Struggle outside the country (particularly in Angola), while Ramaphosa was primarily inside it.
While it is entirely possible they have other links, perhaps through their association with the ANC or through some other dynamic (they are both from Limpopo, for example, but that is hardly evidence of a close relationship), there is little public evidence of this.
That said, he was appointed to the position by Ramaphosa in 2021. This makes it likely that Ramaphosa did this willingly; it seems unlikely he was under any political duress when he made the decision.
It could be argued that Maphwanya is close to retirement and thus many of these problems will leave with him. And thus Ramaphosa should simply wait for him to go.
But that fails to appreciate the example Maphwanya appears to be setting. Absent any public explanation from him, the impression must be that the SANDF’s top leadership is able to break the law and get away with it.
Setting an example
If no action is taken against him, his successor will not fear repercussions. And so this pattern of behaviour will continue. Perhaps more importantly, he is also setting an example for other soldiers, people who have access to military training and military weapons.
The impression they might receive is that they too can break the law and get away with it.
The action of the SANDF funding the legal fees of the Mathipa suspects might well embolden other soldiers to commit crimes. And it goes without saying that the action of the SANDF in allowing Iran to actively participate in the naval exercises suggests to other countries that it is not clear who is making our foreign policy.
Is it Ramaphosa and his elected government? Or leaders of the SANDF who are accountable to no one?
This is not a moment when another commission can be called to investigate.
It requires immediate action.
Members of the SANDF breaking the law and defying our elected leaders cannot be tolerated. Not even for a moment.
And any delay in acting by Ramaphosa or others is simply allowing this to continue. DM