Toughest task for new SANDF chief

The appointment of Lieutenant-General Rudzani Maphwanya as chief of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) indicates a number of possible motives by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Maphwanya could be regarded as a “soldier’s soldier”, having been chief of staff and then later general officer commanding Special Forces in the SANDF.

This elite arm of the military – the successor to the Reconnaissance Commandos of the apartheid years – has, by many accounts, retained the expertise and professionalism which defined the unit as one of the best in the world in its heyday.

The general would not have been given a free passage into senior rank in that formation without having done
his time in it – which he did. Maphwanya has been integrated into the new military since 1994, and has steadily worked his way up through the ranks.

So, while he indeed may be a former member of the ANC’s armed wing, uMkhonto we Sizwe, he is by no means typical of the ANC “deployed cadre”.

At the same time, it seems that Ramaphosa wants professionals he can trust at the helm of the country’s military – which has, so far, avoided being dragged into politics.

Retired generals from the ANC side have, it is true, spoken out on political issues on both sides of the divide
within the ruling party.

Former SANDF chief Siphiwe Nyanda made no bones about his opposition to then president Jacob Zuma during the latter years of state capture, while retired military intelligence head general Mojo Motau caused a stir last year when he threw his weight behind the Zuma faction in the ANC.

Whatever the politics of the military, the biggest challenge facing Maphwanya will be to get more funding for the defence force, which is barely able to fulfil its constitutional mandate.

And that might prove his toughest assignment yet.