Members of the SANDF appear to believe they are above the law, which raises questions about whether President Cyril Ramaphosa has proper control of our armed forces. On Wednesday, 28 January 2026, News 24reportedthat 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.
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.
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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 hasnot yet begunits work. 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. 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.
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