{"id":47696,"date":"2026-01-17T14:35:45","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T14:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=47696"},"modified":"2026-01-17T14:35:45","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T14:35:45","slug":"presidency-confirms-ramaphosas-instruction-motshekhga-iran-exit-naval-drills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/01\/17\/presidency-confirms-ramaphosas-instruction-motshekhga-iran-exit-naval-drills\/","title":{"rendered":"Presidency confirms Ramaphosa&#8217;s instruction to Motshekhga that Iran exit naval drills"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p><h2>South Africa merely gave permisison for the country&#8217;s waters to be used. <\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>President Cyril Ramaphosa\u2019s office says that, though \u201cWill for Peace 2026\u201d naval drills in False Bay, in the Western Cape, were facilitated and led by China, the president had given an instruction to Defence Minister Angie Motshekga to ensure Iran withdraws from the week\u2011long exercises.<\/p>\n<p>The presence of three Iranian warships off False Bay\u00a0has drawn international attention to South Africa, particularly from the United States (USA).<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-what-happened\">What happened?<\/h2>\n<p>A government source confirmed that Iran had been asked to withdraw from the drills, only for the SANDF to later post a now-deleted Facebook statement saying the Iranian corvette Naghdi participated in the sea-phase exercise.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday, Motshekga said she had relayed Ramaphosa\u2019s instructions regarding the military exercises in False Bay and had appointed a board of inquiry to determine whether they were ignored.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Minister of Defence, Hon. Angie Motshekga, would like to place it on record that the instruction was clearly communicated to all parties concerned, agreed upon and to be implemented and adhered to as such,\u201d the Defence Ministry said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ALSO READ:\u00a0Lamola urged to report Iran to UN as protest death toll soars<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-china-invitation\">China invitation<\/h3>\n<p>Magwenya told <em>The Citizen<\/em> that invitations to the participating BRICS countries were handled by China. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is important to first note that these navy drills were facilitated and led by China, not South Africa. The invitations to participating BRICS countries were managed by China. South Africa agreed to participate and to the use of its waters.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-matter-of-fact\">\u2018Matter of fact\u2019<\/h3>\n<p>Magwenya reiterated the SANDF statement clarifying the serious matter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Minister of Defence issued a statement clarifying her position. Hence, she has instituted a board of inquiry. The instruction from the President and the subsequent discussions that followed and the agreement with all concerned parties was that Iran was no longer going to participate in the drills.<\/p>\n<p>Magwenya said the board of inquiry will, therefore, look at what transpired from the time the instruction was given by Ramaphosa via Motshekga to the time the exercise started.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c Saying China led the drills, is not passing any blame on them, it\u2019s a statement of fact.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The navy drill was due to end on Friday.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-us-embassy-slams-sa\">US Embassy slams SA<\/h3>\n<p>The \u00a0US Embassy in South Africa also slammed Pretoria\u00a0for supporting Iran while it cracks down on anti-government protesters by allowing Iranian warships into South African waters for the naval exercises, which also included Russia and China.<\/p>\n<p>The embassy said it is particularly \u201cunconscionable\u201d that South Africa welcomed Iranian security forces as they were \u201cshooting, jailing and torturing\u201d Iranian citizens engaging in peaceful political activity, for which South Africans fought so hard to gain for themselves.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ALSO READ:\u00a0SA concerned about deadly Iran protests, calls for \u2018maximum restraint\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#Presidency #confirms #Ramaphosas #instruction #Motshekhga #Iran #exit #naval #drills<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa merely gave permisison for the country&#8217;s waters to be used. President Cyril Ramaphosa\u2019s office says that, though \u201cWill&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47696"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47698,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47696\/revisions\/47698"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}