Army boss thrown under the bus?

One of the aspects of military training – which becomes more complex as you head up the ladder of ranks – is that mission-planning must always take into account all possibilities.

That is why one would have to say, at first glance, that the chief of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), General Rudzani Maphwanya, failed dreadfully in planning his recent mission to Iran.

Though he had been invited last year to visit Tehran and was given permission this year, surely he realised the political and diplomatic sensitivity of the visit?

And, as an experienced soldier, he should have known he had to be careful about saying anything which might find its way back to the public discourse.

I tend to believe he was well aware of the potential threat to the mission and would only have opened his mouth in a situation he believed was confidential… perhaps a discussion with brother officers.

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My view, though, is that he has been thrown under the bus by the Iranians, who must have been eager to score political points after the bruising fights with Israel earlier this year.

That view is confirmed by an official statement from our department of defence – its last on the matter, it says – that Maphwanya “did not engage with the media in either Iran, or South Africa”, which emphasised his “commitment to respecting the confidentiality surrounding the discussions between the two armed forces”.

Yet Major-General Abdolrahim Mousavi, chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, felt he was bound by no such commitment to confidentiality, putting out a statement that was picked up by Iranian news outlets and then fed to the rest of the world.

Mousavi quoted Maphwanya as condemning Israel’s “bombing of civilians standing in line for food” and its “ongoing aggression in the occupied West Bank”.

The Tehran Times reported that Maphwanya said his visit “carries a political message”, and comes “at the best possible time to express our heartfelt sentiments to the peace-loving people of Iran”.

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Those quotes generated a firestorm of protest and debate back home, with many calling for the SANDF’s chief’s head on a platter.

Even the department of international relations and co-operation and Maphwanya’s own bosses in the defence department seemed unhappy.

The unhappiness is understandable, given that Iran is America’s “Great Satan” and any one seen associating with Tehran is automatically an enemy of the United States.

South Africa has already blotted its copybook in the eyes of President Donald Trump by not doing enough to stop the murders of white people and continuing with its race-based redress policies.

The Maphwanya visit has driven a bigger wedge between Washington and Pretoria, something which suits Tehran no end.

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The worrying question is whether the SANDF head actually said those things, or were the words put into his mouth by his hosts?

Maybe his silence is an indication of his guilt, but maybe it is an indication that he is a professional soldier and will not speak unless specifically asked to do so by his political bosses.

And it is unlikely anyone on the ANC side would risk offending Tehran by saying their top soldier had been thrown under the bus.

Maphwanya, who is due to retire at the end of the year is, according to those who know him, a soldier’s soldier.

He’s not a raving revolutionary, nor is he about to try to overthrow the government either, as some have suggested.

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