MKMVA objects to being deliberately confused by the media with the renegade and factional 'MK National Council' and demands that this misconception be corrected, while re-iterating that it has not rejected the evidence of President Zuma and re-commits to principled unity
17 July 2019
The Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA) has noted with dismay misleading reports, among others by Eye Witness News (EWN) and NewZroom Afrika, to the effect that MKMVA has rejected the evidence of President Jacob Zuma that General (RET) Simphiwe Nyanda and Ngoako Ramatlhodi are spies. Yesterday, an illegitimate parallel structure calling themselves the ‘MK National Council’ issued a media statement defending Nyanda who is their ‘Chairman’, and Ramatlhodi.
For the record, to avoid any inadvertent or deliberately created confusion, the ‘MK National Council’ is a renegade and factional grouping without any legitimacy or legal standing. In terms of the ANC Constitution there is only one legally recognized Association that represents the interests of ex-MK veterans, and that is the Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA), which has our Head Office on the 7th floor of Luthuli House. To confuse MKMVA with the renegade illegitimate parallel grouping ‘MK National Council’ is an outrage, and sloppy journalism of the worst kind.
MKMVA also needs to put formally on record that we have not at all rejected the evidence that President Zuma presented to the Commission of Enquiry into State Capture (popularly known as the Zondo Commission); instead MKMVA issued a media statement yesterday stating that the evidence that President Zuma presented to the Zondo Commission must be taken seriously by the African National Congress (ANC), and that a formal Commission of Inquiry should as a matter of urgency be established by the ANC to investigate the very serious issues of spies and counter revolutionaries who have infiltrated the ANC. In this regard we noted with concern, and agree with, the statement yesterday by the Secretary General of the ANC, comrade Ace Magashule, that like all other revolutionary organizations the ANC had been infiltrated by counter revolutionaries. MKMVA stated that this situation is totally intolerable for us as ex-MK veterans who have dedicated our lives to the liberation of black, especially African, South Africans. The media would have done well to rather report this statement by MKMVA, than maliciously miss-representing our views and ‘confusing’ us with renegades such as ‘MK National Council’.
As for General (RET) Simphiwe Nyanda, whose praises the MK National Council unsurprisingly sings, since he is after all the renegade leader of this factional splinter grouping: MKMVA has long held the view that General (RET) Nyanda’s role in the so-called ‘integration’ process between the former revolutionary liberation armies (mainly Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), which was by far the largest liberation army), and the old racist apartheid South African Defense Force (SADF) and South African Police Service (SAPS), was deeply problematic.
General (RET) Nyanda presided over a process that called the members of the liberation armies by the misnomer of ‘Non-statutory Forces’ (NSF), and instead of proper and full integration between the liberation armies and the notorious apartheid security forces, the members of our liberation armies were in the most horrible and demeaning manner simply absorbed into the apartheid security forces and their structures and ranking criteria. This led to a situation where proud liberation fighters were humiliated, and ended up with low gradings and ranks, and became subordinates to white racist officers who had fought in defense of apartheid racism.
This terrible situation broke the spirit of many a proud liberation soldier, and many of our members resigned from their deployment/employment in the security forces, rather than being subjected to such humiliation. Many others never even got a chance of deployment/ employment at all. This was, and remains an outrage, and it cannot be described as anything else but that General (RET) Nyanda sold out his own fellow MK cadres. Even during the period from 1998 - 2005, when General Nyanda was the Chief of the South African Defense Force he showed scant interest in the plight of his fellow comrades, and did not address their legitimate concerns. Instead he presided in a callous manner over the consolidation of the grossly unfair situation that he helped to create in the first place.
As a consequence MKMVA, and our Mother body the African National Congress (ANC), is now faced with a situation where many of our liberation soldier cadres in the SANDF and SAPS continue to be inappropriately employed in the lowest ranks, and continue to be subjugated to white (mainly racist) officers.
This led to situation that MKMVA had been ceased with this terrible problem for years, and had to fight tooth and nail to get our members appropriately re-ranked. General Nyanda, not having done the integration process well, and in a politically principled manner in the first place, had left MKMVA and our members in a weak and vulnerable situation and created the space for the likes of the white racist Solidarity Trade Union to frustrate our genuine efforts of securing the appropriate re-ranking of our members, that must also recognize their years of service as liberation soldiers in MK and the various liberation armies, with spurious legal actions.
Instead of issuing factional politically motivated media statements such as the statement that was released yesterday by Gregory Nthatisi, the so-called Secretary General of ‘MK National Council’, and trying to blame MKMVA for the disunity in the ranks of ex-MK combatants, the MK National Council should immediately cease their factional existence and re-join MKMVA in order to address the mess that had been created by the likes of their ‘Chairman’.
Many of our members never got jobs during the farcical absorption process that the so-called integration of the security forces became, others resigned in utter frustration, and many continue to languish in the lowest ranks. As a consequence many of our MKMVA members, and their families, are left in the most dire of circumstances with no jobs, no adequate housing, and no education provisions for their children - to mention only a few of the myriad of devastating problems that our members are faced with. In this regard the role of the Department of Military Veterans (DMV) is seriously inadequate, and many administrative problems including a poorly administered and incomplete data base of Military Veterans prevent our MKMVA members from accessing the rights that they are entitled to in terms of the Military Veterans Act, Act Number 8, of 2011.
MKMVA is committed to achieving the objective of the Resolution of the 54th National Conference of the ANC to work towards unity among all ex-MK veterans. In this regard MKMVA has been engaging with the NEC of the ANC, but such unity must be principled and directed at addressing the genuine and urgent needs of our members.
It cannot be that ill-discipline, opportunism and political factionalism as represented by the ‘MK National Council’, and personified their Chairman, will be rewarded and recognized by the ANC. That would be travesty!
MKMVA will continue too work for true unity within our constitutional legitimate Association. For the ‘MK National Council’ to try and blame MKMVA for the disunity in the ranks of ex-MK veterans is disingenuous, and a blatant lie.
Let us be unequivocally clear ‘MK National Council’ is the illegitimate factional parallel grouping who had been formed by their ‘Chairman’, and factional people of his ilk, in order to undermine unity in the ex-MK family, and to selfishly protect themselves from the rightful anger of many of our members for the manner in which they sold us out.
As for MKMVA, we will continue to work to correct the terrible mistakes, and the consequent devastating problems for ex MK-veterans, that had been created by the likes of General (RET) Nyanda and his factional cronies. We will never bow to reactionary and counter revolutionary behavior.
Issued by Carl Niehaus, MKMVA National Spokesperson, 17 July 2019
