MKMVA flexes its muscle

The ANC’s move to disband its armed military wing, the uMkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA), is facing fierce opposition.

MKMVA members said they refused to accept the disbandment, with spokesperson Carl Niehaus on Sunday saying: “MKMVA belongs to the people, MKMVA belongs to those who are MK combatants who dedicated their lives for the liberation of South Africa.

“The ANC that I joined 42 years ago is an organisation that cares for its people.

“The ANC that I joined would never have done what Gwede Mantashe did last week in that meeting.”

Mantashe abruptly ended a Zoom call while virtually meeting the ANC top six earlier this month.

Niehaus said the MKMVA was formed by military veterans, “not by some comrades who are now telling us to disband”.

He said it was because of MKMVA that today there was a department of military veterans and the Military Veterans Act of 2011 to secure the rights of MK members.

While MKMVA members were loyal to the ANC, Niehaus said if the party “behaves un-ANC” and in a manner which went against its revolutionary roots, MKMVA members would go to court.

“And we will win because the law is on our side,” he added.

He called on MKMVA members to unite against division tactics from within the party.

Niehaus said South Africa would not be free until full economic liberation was achieved and white monopoly capital was eradicated.

Niehaus later told eNCA the ANC does not have the legal right to disband the MKMVA.

Niehaus called on the national office bearers of the ANC to engage with the MKMVA “in a sensible way and to hear our concerns”.

Adding that the MKMVA felt disrespected by Mantashe’s prior actions, he said: “This engagement was alien to the democratic culture of the ANC, which has always been to debate and to respect divergent views.

“MKMVA was being dictated to in an entirely unANC manner.”