Veterans’ bodies must unite under one banner, insists ANC

The ANC national executive committee (NEC) has decided that Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA) and its rival uMkhonto we Sizwe Council (MK Council) must establish one organisation in the interest of the ongoing attempt to unite the party.

ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule said the NEC agreed at its three-day meeting in Pretoria at the weekend that the two structures of the former ANC military wing’s veterans must meet and discuss unity.

This was as an endorsement of a recommendation by the ANC subcommittee on peace and stability that they must disband with a view to form one structure.

Magashule said the NEC directed the peace and stability committee, in line with the 54th ANC National Conference, to urgently form a joint task team to take the MKMVA and MK Council to a representative conference immediately after elections.

“The NEC reaffirms that the Military Veteran’s Association must address the plight of all MK veterans,” Magashule said.

The MKMVA is led Kebby Maphatsoe, who is deputy minister of defence, while the MK Council is headed by General Siphiwe Nyanda, former SA Defence Force chief.

The MKMVA supported ex-president Jacob Zuma during the calls for him to resign and Maphatsoe had been accused of recruiting non-MK youth as military veterans.

The MK Council, while not a formal or constitutional structure of the ANC, is comprised of genuine MK veterans who were all linked to the former military attachments established by the ANC high command in exile.