MK veterans’ feud gathers momentum

Umkhonto we Sizwe military veterans have been mandated to lay criminal charges against the rebellious MK Military Veterans Association (MKMVA) chairperson, Kebby Maphatsoe, and Defence and Military Veterans (DMV) officials for funding an unconstitutional conference of the MKMVA that was addressed by President Jacob Zuma in June.

The military veterans, who held a two-day conference at Nasrec at the weekend, want Maphatsoe and the DMV officials to face fraud charges emanating from the conference organised by Maphatsoe against the decision of the ANC national executive committee that the MKMVA and the MK National Council Steering Committee should hold a joint all-inclusive national conference.

The NEC, through the office of secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, elected a 10-member ad-hoc committee to ensure the two sides worked together towards the conference.

Instead of participating in the process, Maphatsoe and a few others broke ranks and organised a separate conference at Birchwood Hotel, in Boksburg, early this year.

But some top members of the MKMVA decided to abandon Maphatsoe and participated in national council effort to organise a joint all-inclusive conference, which took place at the weekend.

In a report focusing on the enmity between the two MK factions to the Nasrec conference on Friday, MKMVA’s Dumisani Nduli said Maphatsoe refused to work with the MK National Council, saying it was a mistake.

This was against the spirit of the adhoc committee that they must co-operate to organise the conference.

He accused Maphatsoe of organising an unconstitutional meeting.