{"id":95580,"date":"2026-02-10T16:04:45","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T16:04:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/murder-accused-officer-named-special-forces-commander"},"modified":"2026-02-10T16:28:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T16:28:00","slug":"murder-accused-officer-named-special-forces-commander","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/murder-accused-officer-named-special-forces-commander","title":{"rendered":"Murder-Accused Officer Named Special Forces Commander"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>A senior SANDF officer accused of murder has been promoted to lead the SANDF\u2019s Special Forces, raising alarm over accountability and reform.<\/p>\n<p>The promotion of a senior South African National Defence Force officer has raised concerns about accountability and oversight.<\/p>\n<p>Despite facing serious pending criminal charges, including murder, Brigadier General Solly Lechoenyo was recently appointed as the new commanding officer of the Special Forces unit.Lechoenyo and six other soldiers were charged with planning and carrying out the murder of Hawks investigator Lieutenant Colonel Frans Mathipa.<\/p>\n<p>Writer and scholar Jonny Steinberg said that while the Madlanga Commission\u2019s interim report points to the need for crucial reform of the police service, he is sceptical about President Cyril Ramaphosa\u2019s commitment to this process.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Rampahosa] is sending mixed signals. Perhaps nobody in the upper echelons of government thinks that Special Forces assassinating a foreign national is a big deal, and the detective who took the case too seriously got burnt, and life goes on?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis promotion tells a grim story about the possibilities of police reform,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">South-Africa<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. A senior SANDF officer accused of murder has been promoted to lead the SANDF\u2019s Special Forces, raising alarm over accountability and reform. The promotion of a senior South African National Defence Force officer has raised concerns about accountability and oversight. Despite facing serious pending criminal charges, including murder, Brigadier General Solly Lechoenyo [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":95579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-95580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Murder-Accused Officer Named Special Forces Commander - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A senior SANDF officer accused of murder has been promoted to lead the SANDF\u2019s Special Forces, raising alarm over accoun ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/murder-accused-officer-named-special-forces-commander\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Murder-Accused Officer Named Special Forces Commander\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A senior SANDF officer accused of murder has been promoted to lead the SANDF\u2019s Special Forces, raising alarm over accoun ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/murder-accused-officer-named-special-forces-commander\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-10T16:04:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-10T16:28:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/02\/sm_1770728191.856898.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1152\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"648\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/murder-accused-officer-named-special-forces-commander#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/murder-accused-officer-named-special-forces-commander\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Murder-Accused Officer Named Special Forces Commander\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-10T16:04:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-10T16:28:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/murder-accused-officer-named-special-forces-commander\"},\"wordCount\":196,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/murder-accused-officer-named-special-forces-commander#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/02\/sm_1770728191.856898.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/murder-accused-officer-named-special-forces-commander#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/murder-accused-officer-named-special-forces-commander\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/murder-accused-officer-named-special-forces-commander\",\"name\":\"Murder-Accused Officer Named Special Forces Commander - 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