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By Diana Chiyangwa
TalkAfrica has confirmed that the person in the video is not a SANDF commander.
A TikTok video claiming to show a commander of the South African National Defence Forces (SANDF) calling for President Cyril Ramaphosa’s ouster is FALSE.
On 2 August 2025, a TikTok account dubbed “Montex” shared a video of an individual with a caption claiming to be a South African National Defence Forces (SANDF) Commander. The individual is heard from 1 minute 40 seconds, mobilising South African citizens and members of the army to march to the Union Building to demand that South African President Cyril Ramaphosa step down.
A similar video with the same individual claiming to be a SANDF commander was also posted by BantuTV_ONE1 on YouTube on 7 August 2025. In the video, the individual can be heard from 6 minutes and 6 seconds saying that he is an RMSA general. The individual has a TikTok account @general.rt4 where he appears to be in a studio setup.
A reverse image search using TinEye reveals that the background used in the video depicts demonstrators participating in the People’s March on Saturday, 18 January 2025, in Washington. The protest was held a day before Donald Trump’s second-term inauguration to protest his upcoming second-term policies and agenda. The protest was organised by a coalition of progressive and social justice organisations. Some of the themes of the protest included feminism, racial justice, and opposition to militarisation.
The South African National Defence Forces (SANDF) released a statement on 3 August 2025, warning the public and SANDF members not to heed the call from this video circulating on social media platforms. The statement reads, “The SANDF wishes to state categorically that this video is fake, misleading, and maliciously fabricated. The individual depicted is not a recognised commander of the SANDF, and the message conveyed in the video does not reflect the position or discipline of the South African military.”
From left: The South African National Defence Force Commander General Rudzani Maphwanya versus the man in the video under investigation.
The SANDF Commander is General Rudzani Maphwanya who looks different from the man in the video under investigation. The man in the video under scrutiny is wearing a beret written RMSA and a uniform that is not SANDF regalia, as seen in this clip. From the regalia that General Maphwanya is wearing, it is clear that the man in the video under investigation is not donned in the SANDF uniform.
The SANDF statement further adds that “An internal investigation is underway to trace the origins of this video, and those responsible will be pursued and prosecuted in accordance with military and civilian law.”
Defence Web, an online African defence and security news publication, also published the story on 4 August 2025.
Analysts say the video of the man dressed as an army general in the video was generated using Artificial Intelligence (AI). Media Monitoring Africa has called for a criminal investigation into the social media user who posted the video.
TalkAfrica ran the clip through the Hive Moderation tool, and the analysis of the video shows that the technical suspicion rating is 1.4 %, which means the video is not likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content.
TalkAfrica examined a TikTok post claiming to show a commander of the South African National Defence Forces calling for President Cyril Ramaphosa’s ouster and found it to be FALSE.
This fact-check was produced by TalkAfrica as part of the African Fact-Checking Alliance’s (AFCA) incubation programme. It was produced with peer-mentorship from Code for Africa’s fact-checking initiative, PesaCheck, with financial support from Norway. AFCA mentorship respects the journalistic independence of the researchers, offering access to advanced techniques and tools. Editorial decision-making remains with Name of Newsroom. Want to learn more? Visit: https://factcheck.africa/
