{"id":7133,"date":"2026-01-06T12:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T12:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/7133\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T12:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T12:32:11","slug":"sa-urged-to-tread-carefully-on-statements-in-volatile-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/7133\/","title":{"rendered":"SA urged to tread carefully on statements in volatile environment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\tExperts caution that careless public statements by officials could harm SA\u2019s credibility and strain already fragile international relationships.\n\t<\/p>\n

South African politicians and prominent figures must not make utterances that will damage the country\u2019s image, especially internally. <\/p>\n

This is the view of reputation experts, who were reacting after Clayson Monyela, the head of public diplomacy at the department of international relations and cooperation (Dirco), came under fire for taking part in a social media engagement that proposed the revival of South Africa\u2019s nuclear weapons programme. <\/p>\n

A few days ago, Monyela responded to a user who proposed that South Africa should pursue nuclear capabilities as a means of protecting Nelson Mandela\u2019s peace-loving nation from socalled imperialist forces. <\/p>\n

Senior officials must show discipline \u2013 reputation specialists<\/p>\n

Monyela said: \u201cI find no fault in your proposal.\u201d <\/p>\n

As soon as people started attacking him, he deleted it and posted a message that: \u201cI have deleted this comment. Poorly framed. I have no issues with apologising for it. SA remains committed to a nuclear-free world except for scientific, medical and energy use, etc. That remains the policy position of the government.\u201d <\/p>\n

When called for comment yesterday, he referred the journalist to his X account to see his apology. <\/p>\n

ALSO READ: SA condemns Israel\u2019s recognition of Somaliland as \u2018violation of sovereignty\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Reputation management strategist Solly Moeng told The Citizen Monyela\u2019s remarks could have been \u201cdangerous\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe may not support much of what the Trump administration is doing, but we should also not poke it and give it reason to react in ways that might further deepen the tensions between our two countries and hurt South Africa\u2019s prospects of economic revival,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Tshepo Matseba, MD of Reputation 1st, a strategic communication and reputation management consultancy, said Monyela should have exercised greater discipline. <\/p>\n

\u201cPublic diplomacy is not casual commentary. It is strategic signalling on behalf of the state. <\/p>\n

\u201cEven when framed informally on social media, words from someone in his position carry national meaning, not personal opinion. The timing was particularly unfortunate.\u201d <\/p>\n

Matseba said South Africa was operating in a fragile diplomatic environment, including a strained relationship with the US under President Donald Trump, meaning that in such moments, restraint was not a weakness. <\/p>\n

ALSO READ: US condemns SA over raid at refugee facility<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is strategic maturity. Public statements, especially on sensitive issues like nuclear weapons, must reduce tension, not amplify it. Unfortunately, in the age of digital diplomacy, a single post can be weaponised out of context.\u201d <\/p>\n

He said the incident raises questions about whether there are communication protocols in place to help senior officials distinguish between personal opinion and official position. <\/p>\n

\u201cSouth Africa\u2019s greatest diplomatic asset is credibility. We voluntarily dismantled our nuclear weapons and built moral authority around peace, mediation and multilateralism,\u201d Matseba said. <\/p>\n

SA\u2019s greatest diplomatic asset is credibility<\/p>\n

\u201cThat reputation should not be diluted by impulsive digital engagement. The priority now should be tightening social media governance for senior officials, reinforcing message discipline and focusing on repairing relationships that affect trade, investment and national interest.\u201d <\/p>\n

Dirco spokesperson Chrispin Phiri did not respond to questions sent to him yesterday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Experts caution that careless public statements by officials could harm SA\u2019s credibility and strain already fragile international relationships.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[5114,5115,2433,131],"class_list":{"0":"post-7133","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-department-of-international-relations-and-cooperation-dirco","9":"tag-politicians","10":"tag-social-media","11":"tag-south-africa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}