A four-strong Board of Inquiry (BoI) will, according to the South African Department of Defence (DoD), investigate and report on “serious allegations” around the Will for Peace naval exercise staged from Naval Base Simons Town between 9 and 16 January.
A DoD statement, signed off by Head of Communication (HoC) Siphiwe Dlamini, issued on Wednesday 28 January names the BoI members but gives no detail of timelines. In this regard, it reads “in the endeavour to ensure transparency and full independence, consultation with the identified members of the board took longer than expected, thus impacting on the deadline as set”. The BoI will start its work once, what is termed “all administrative aspects” are in place.
Similarly, no date is given for the BoI to complete its work or submit a report to either SA National Defence Force (SANDF) Commander-in-Chief, President Cyril Ramaphosa, and/or his defence and military veterans minister, Angie Motshekga.
This is in direct contrast to an earlier announcement regarding the Will for Peace BoI which gave it seven days – from 15 January – to “look into the circumstances surrounding the allegations and establish whether the instruction of the President may have been misrepresented and/or ignored”. That seemingly referred to Iran having supposed to have been an observer nation for the exercise rather than a participant, among others.
The BoI will he chaired by Judge Bernard Ngoepe, a former Judge President of the then Gauteng Division of the Pretoria High Court and also a Court of Military Appeals member as well as chair of the Military Legal Services Division Review Council.
Two of his co-BoI members hail from the judiciary. They are former High Court judge Kathy Satchwell, with a reputation enhanced by human rights advocacy, and Judge Mashangu Leeuw, a former Judge President of the North West Division of the High Court and Acting Constitutional Court Judge.
Retired SAN flag officer, Rear Admiral (junior grade) Patrick Duze, whose experience in uniform includes SAN Chief of Fleet Staff, Director Naval Policy and Doctrine and Director Force Preparation at the Joint Operations Division, is number four on the Will for Peace BoI. As far as can be ascertained Duze retired in March 2017.
