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By Jonisayi Maromo 
15h ago
Pretoria – The head of the South African National Defense Force, General Solly Shoke, sternly warned service members to stay away from engaging in African National Congress affairs and bringing the name of the armed forces into politics.
Shoke’s firm remarks came as the SANDF said it is aware of a planned meeting in which senior members of the military are expected to discuss undisclosed issues affecting the ANC.
“It has come to the attention of the head of the South African National Defense Force, General Solly Shoke, that a meeting is being planned to which several high-ranking servicemen have been or will be invited to attend to discuss matters that are currently affect the ruling. party in the country, ”SANDF said in a statement.
“General Shoke would like to state categorically without any contradiction and in unequivocal terms that no serving member of the South African National Defense Force will be or has been authorized to attend such an alleged meeting to discuss insignificant party political matters. SANDF continues to be an organization that stands above politics and serves the sovereign security interests of the Republic as mandated by the Constitution. “
He said that the military command distanced itself from calls to discuss party political issues.
The ANC is currently mired in controversy after its senior members led by Secretary General Ace Magashule flew on a SANDF plane to hold inter-party talks with ruling Zanu-PF in neighboring Zimbabwe.
Amid the aftermath, Magashule apologized, saying that the ANC delegation had used an “unusual way” to travel to Harare and that the party would reimburse the government for the costs.
“In our quest to accomplish this mission, we traveled in an unusual way and profusely humiliated ourselves at what went wrong during the shutdown and will reimburse the government for costs incurred on behalf of our delegation,” Magashule said.
South Africa’s public protector, defender Busisiwe Mkhwebane, has been confirmed to be investigating the use of the SANDF aircraft by ANC officials.
African News Agency / ANA
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