MKMVA REITERATES THAT IT IS THE ONLY LEGITIMATE AND OFFICIALLY REPRESENTATIVE ORGANISATION FOR MK MILITARY VETERANS AND DEMANDS THAT THE ILLEGAL ABUSE OF OUR NAME MUST STOP IMMEDIATELY
Date: Wednesday, 4 October 2017
In the face of the deliberate provocative lies that the so called MK National continues to disseminate, the Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA) finds it necessary to reiterate the media statement that we issued yesterday. In our statement the record was put straight that MKMVA is not in any manner whatsoever involved in organising, nor participating in, the rebel conference that the renegade MK National Council has organised for the coming weekend.
This rebellious, and deliberately factional and divisive, conference does not have any official status, nor does the so-called MK National Council have any official status other than being an informal collection of disgruntled individuals some of whom are former MK veterans.
The only officially recognised Association for MK Military Veterans is Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA). As was pointed out in our statement (attached hereto*), MKMVA held our official 5th National Conference from the 8th - 11th of June 2017 at the Birchwood Conference in Boksburg, Johannesburg. At this National Conference, which was properly constituted and overseen by members of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ANC, our National Office Bearers and the additional members of the MKMVA National Executive Committee (NEC) were duly elected. This is the only conference that has official status.
Any claim by the MK National Council that their rebel conference is official, or has any official sanction, is devoid of any truth whatsoever. Such claims are deliberately misleading. MKMVA will not in any way whatsoever participate in this rebel conference, any individuals who may claim that they participate as MKMVA members will do so fraudulently. Not a single member of MKMVA is authorised to participate in this conference.
MKMVA puts on record that the press statements by the MK National Council that their rebel conference is official and “all inclusive” are deliberate miss-representations and fraudulent. The MK National Council has no authority to use and abuse the name of MKMVA for their divisive and factional purposes. Any media statements and advertisements to that effect are blatant lies and nothing else but fraud and false news. We call on all the media not to make themselves guilty of the dissemination of false and fraudulent news by publishing such untruthful statements, and paid advertisements.
MKMVA demands that the MK National Council immediately stop using the name of MKMVA, which they are not at all entitled to use. MKMVA will now also proceed with taking the necessary legal steps to interdict the MK National Council from using the name of MKMVA, or creating the false impression that they have any rights whatsoever to speak or act on behalf of MKMVA.
Utterly false and unsubstantiated libellous allegations of corruption that are with reckless abandon levelled against the legitimate leadership of MKMVA are also rejected with the contempt it deserves.
Some individuals of the MK National Council have submitted a complaint about our 5th MKMVA National Conference to the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ANC. Despite the NEC having referred this matter to the National Working Committee (NWC) for further consideration the MK National Council shows no respect for the NEC of the ANC, and the procedures it has decided on to process their complaint, and now simply proceed with their rebel conference.
Evidently they do not even respect their own complaint. and in doing so exposes it as spurious and devoid of substance. We can come to no other conclusion that they are only interested in promoting a destabilising and factional political agenda.
MKMVA will not be drawn into such factional one-upmanship, as disciplined members of the ANC who respect the official and democratic organisational structures of the ANC we will await the outcome of the procedures that ANC NEC have put in place. Only the NEC can finally decide about complaints brought to it, and any attempt - as these rebels of the MK National Council are now doing - to undermine the authority of the ANC NEC is ill-discipline of the worst order. Such conduct is entirely unacceptable, and should in fact lead to immediate disciplinary action by the ANC.
MKMVA is committed to organisational unity and discipline in all the structures of the ANC. In this context we call on the MK National Council renegades to cease with their factional and divisive actions forthwith. It is high time that they recognise the legitimate and official organisational authority of MKMVA and return to our fold where all true and disciplined MK Military Veterans belong.
Statement issued by Carl Niehaus, MKMVA National Executive Committee member and National Spokesperson, 4 October 2017
