Ricardo Teixeira
Ricardo Teixeira, who has joined the Daily Friend as Associate Editor, is a journalist, defence analyst, and national security advocate. He champions integrity, competence, and long-term reform in South Africa’s security and defence architecture. With a multidisciplinary background, he combines rigorous research with clear communication to deliver practical, insightful analysis.
Articles By This Author
SANDF, the ANC’s employment force
Thirty years ago, the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) existed for one primary reason: to defend the Republic, it’s people and territorial integrity against external threats and, if necessary, fight and win wars on behalf of the state. That was its constitutional purpose, its strategic justification. Everything else was secondary.
Freedom Day and functional legitimacy
Thirty-two years into democracy, African National Congress (ANC) rule finds itself confronting a myriad of problems, some more fundamental than electoral decline. While it may not realise it, the ANC is beginning to lose its functional legitimacy. The first duty of a state is to defend its citizens and its territorial integrity; this is what justifies a government’s authority.
More than an air show: a lesson in air power
As fans of the hit Tom Cruise films of the “Top Gun” series can surely attest, air power lends itself to spectacle. Jets roar overhead at high speed, drop devastating amounts of ordnance, which explode spectacularly. Then, just as quickly as they arrived, the jets depart in seconds, leaving behind little but dust, noise and the suggestion of overwhelming force.
News Focus: A widening war, a narrowing margin for error
The war involving Iran, the United States and Israel has entered a more dangerous phase, defined less by decisive victories than by expanding reach, blurred accountability and mounting global costs. Events over the past 48 hours, from the Gulf to the Indian Ocean, suggest a conflict that is no longer contained geographically, militarily or economically.
A carrier of ambition
If the International Fleet Review off Visakhapatnam illustrated the reach of India’s naval diplomacy, stepping aboard INS Vikrant revealed something deeper: the strategic thinking shaping India’s maritime policy.
Why South Africa still needs naval diplomacy
In mid-February I was among a group of 28 international defence journalists invited to India to observe a series of exercises hosted by the country’s
SA’s long war in the DRC is ending – the reckoning should begin
After nearly three decades, South Africa is preparing to withdraw its troops from eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). By the end of 2026,
Regional unity and the hard test of maritime security
South Africa’s defence relationship with France has been shaped less by ideology than by geography and shared responsibility in the maritime domain. This is a
Goma, one year on: a defeat without accountability
The first anniversary of the Second Battle of Goma should have been a moment of sober reflection for South Africa. Instead, it has passed in
Will for Peace and the cost of strategic pretence
Exercise Will for Peace was meant to show that South Africa could host a complex naval exercise, engage major powers on its own terms, and