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A Russian vessel arrives at the Simon’s Town Naval base ahead of the BRICS Plus countries which include China, Russia and Iran for a joint naval exercises in South Africa’s, in Cape Town, South Africa, January 9, 2026.
President Cyril Ramaphosa says the country needs to re-look the manner in which the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) sets up military exercises with other countries’ forces.
Ramaphosa was responding to questions about the participation last week of Iran, in the Will for Peace naval exercise near Simons Town in the Western Cape.
Pretoria is said to have had misgivings about Iran’s participation, after reports of Tehran’s brutal crackdown and killing of citizens protesting the country’s deepening economic crisis.
Despite this, Iran participated, prompting the establishment of a board of inquiry by Defence Minister Angie Motshekga.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Education Sector Lekgotla in Boksburg, Ramaphosa says China had the responsibility to organize, to lead, and to arrange the naval exercises.
“We did raise with China the issue of Iran and said that it would be best that they should withdraw. And having done so, many, many engagements happened. And in the course of it all, we realized that we needed more information, and that is why we’ve constituted a board of inquiry. But more than that, we also need to see the extent to which we ourselves, even as we are not leaders and arrangers of some of these exercises, can take proactive action about certain things, participants and all that.”
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwWNw7zWirI
