Disgruntled MK veterans threaten to march to Union buildings
DISGRUNTLED members of the former military wing of the ANC falling under the Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA) have threatened to march to the Union Buildings to stage a hunger strike until they get the attention of President Cyril Ramaphosa.
This was one of the several resolutions taken during a meeting of the affected members held in KwaMashu, north of Durban, on Saturday.
The meeting was attended by about 150 former liberation soldiers falling under the umbrella of MKMVA and was meant to pile pressure on Ramaphosa to establish a commission of inquiry to look at the welfare of liberation soldiers from all liberation parties.
Speaking to Independent Media, spokesperson of the affected group Lwazi Mzobe said they feel betrayed and neglected by the government as most of them were struggling to make ends meet. He said the commission should also look at their plight from 1990, when they returned to the country after being away for years.
“We want the commission to find out what happened to the resettlement money… If you look at it now, it is clear that ex-soldiers were dumped in the country without any help, yet there was money allocated for that. Some needed counselling and medical help but they never got it.
“Some soldiers came back from exile only to find that their families were dismantled by the apartheid government and they were rendered homeless,” Mzobe said.
He also alleged that they recently wrote to Ramaphosa and were told to wait until the Covid-19 battle was over. “We can’t take excuses any more. The previous governments did not do anything… if Ramaphosa does not attend to us, we will be forced to march to Union Buildings to stage a hunger… we will sit there until we die.”
Asked why they were not using the MKMVA to wage the fight, Mzobe said its leadership had failed them. MKMVA spokesperson Carl Niehaus said they understood the initiative and backed it.
Mzobe said the move to write to Ramaphosa was backed by the ex-Azanian People Liberation Army (APLA) as they were facing similar challenges.
However, the national chairperson of ex-APLA combatants, Ray Fihla, said they were not aware of the latest move by the disgruntled soldiers.
But he said issues that had to do with the welfare of ex-liberation forces were j ointly fought as they suffered the same challenges.
Gregory Nthatisi, of the MK Council, a splinter group from MKMVA and still within the ANC, said the only process he was aware of was the resolution on the unification of MK structures and the need to attend to the welfare of all veterans.
Ramaphosa’s acting spokesperson, Tyrone Seale, did not respond when asked whether the president was aware of the matter.