She stressed that investors are unlikely to commit capital in an environment where civilian control over the armed forces appears to be in question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s certainly a risk that investors did not think they\u2019d have to worry about going into 2026,\u201d IJssel de Schepper said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe president\u2019s got a very short window now to address this. If it is not addressed properly, if heads don\u2019t roll, if there\u2019s no clarity on this front, then we\u2019ll see how quickly signs of investor confidence in our fourth-quarter index can evaporate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The warning follows reports that explicit instructions to exclude Iran from a Chinese-led naval exercise at Simon\u2019s Town were ignored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was reported<\/a> by News24 that the initial directive was given in early November during an interdepartmental meeting attended by the presidency, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, and the Department of Defence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The order was clear. Iran was not to participate in the exercise in any capacity, not even as an observer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite this, Iran ultimately took part in the exercise, an outcome one senior source described as \u201cblatant defiance\u201d by the head of the SANDF, General Rudzani Maphwanya, and the chief of the navy, Vice-Admiral Monde Lobese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After confirmation of Iran\u2019s participation, Defence Minister Angie Motshekga announced in January that a board of inquiry would be established to investigate why President Ramaphosa\u2019s instruction was not carried out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, IJssel de Schepper warned that the damage to investor sentiment may already be underway if the issue is not handled decisively and transparently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n South Africa\u2019s growing military engagement with Russia, China and Iran, combined with doubts about the president\u2019s control over the defence force, is \u201cextremely concerning\u201d from an investor\u2019s perspective and will \u201cabsolutely\u201d affect confidence, she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She added that this kind of uncertainty is not abstract or theoretical. It feeds directly into how investors assess risk, cost of capital and long-term stability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Issues such as the rule of law and civilian oversight of the military should be assumed fundamentals, not variables that need to be reassessed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Decisive action by the president could also have a strongly positive effect. IJssel de Schepper said a clear demonstration of accountability and control could reassure investors and reinforce confidence at a critical moment for the economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, she warned that if it does not happen, an issue that was barely on investors\u2019 radar until recently could become a central concern.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" President Cyril Ramaphosa has been warned that South Africa could quickly lose investor confidence if he fails to decisively address concerns over his ability to control the armed forces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":848808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[17585,20149,853],"class_list":["post-848783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-bureau-for-economic-research-ber","tag-minister-of-defence-and-military","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=848783"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":855794,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848783\/revisions\/855794"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/848808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Time is of the essence<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ship-Iran-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n