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The DA condemns the Department of Defence for calling recent naval exercises “BRICS” or “BRICS+” as it is deliberately misleading by design.

BRICS is not a military alliance. It has no defence role, no joint command, no shared military plan and no agreement to do military exercises together.

Calling these drills “BRICS cooperation” is a political trick to soften what is really happening: government is choosing closer military ties with rogue and sanctioned states such as Russia and Iran.

That is not multilateralism. It is selective alignment.

The proof is simple. Two founding BRICS members, India and Brazil, have again stayed away. They did not take part in MOSI I, MOSI II or Exercise Will for Peace. That tells us this is not a BRICS exercise. It is a narrow political choice being labeled as something broader.

Flying all the BRICS+ flags at Simons Town to create the impression of wide international support is political theatre. It misleads the public, misrepresents what BRICS is, and damages South Africa’s claim to be non-aligned.

The Department of Defence is undermining the GNU statement of intent, which requires non-aligned foreign policy, by running military exercises with sanctioned and belligerent states, and then pretends it is doing so under a neutral BRICS banner.

That is not non-alignment, it is alignment by stealth.

South Africa has the right to choose its partners. But the ANC does not have the right to unilaterally make these choices and then hide those choices behind false labels and diplomatic spin.

The Democratic Alliance will not allow the ANC to keep hiding behind the language of “non-alignment” while quietly choosing sides. It violates the spirit and working of the GNU statement of intent, undermines South Africa’s credibility on the international stage, and sends the wrong diplomatic signals to all our major trading partners.

Non-alignment is not a slogan, it is a standard of behaviour. We will continue to demand honesty, transparency and accountability about who the DoD is aligning with militarily, why it is doing so, and what the real risks and costs are for South Africa’s security, economy and place in the world.

Issued by the Democratic Alliance