MK vets want MPs to ‘vote with their conscience’ in Zuma motion

Senior former Umkhonto weSizwe soldiers have asked ANC MPs to vote according to their consciences in the upcoming anti-Zuma vote of no-confidence in Parliament, which has been postponed to await a ruling on whether secret ballots can be used.

The MK National Council, however, cautioned that the MPs should not be influenced by opposition parties in their decision.

The council steering committee spoke to the media at Lilliesleaf Farm in Rivonia, Johannesburg, the scene where the Rivonia trialists were rounded up and arrested by police in the early 1960s.

Ex-MK combatant and steering committee member Thabang Makwetla said politicians should not vote with the opposition but according to their consciences. He said the only time any vote of no confidence would succeed was when the ANC took initiative on the matter, but not through the opposition.

“Change will only come once the ANC itself proposes a vote of no confidence. At that time, processes would have reached the tipping point,” said Makwetla.

He said the initiative to correct what was happening in the party lay with the ANC.

Committee chairperson and former MK chief of staff Siphiwe Nyanda said they wanted to correct unprecedented political ructions within the top echelons of the ANC.

The committee distanced MK from the members who claimed to be from the MK Military Veterans’ Association (MKMVA) deployed to protect the ANC head office Luthuli House during the People’s March last week.

Nyanda said none of those there had been from the ANC’s former military wing, and many of them indeed looked very young. He said MK had been disbanded along with other liberation armies in 1994 and their uniforms and arms were surrendered as part of integration into the new army, the SANDF.

“We don’t have uniform currently as MK, we have no arms. We don’t have the capacity to protect anybody or any building. Everything is done by the SAPS.

“KA” Shabangu, another committee member who was once on death row for his struggle activities, said those who had paraded as MK had acted against MK’s founding principle to fight to liberate people and not against them.

“We condemn in the strongest terms possible these actions. Our soldiers cannot fight against our people, whether they come from the ANC or opposition or not,” said Shabangu.

The committee has proposed a dialogue with the ANC about its internal political problems. They want all structures of the party to have input in the process, including leaders who participated in internal structures during the apartheid era and former party representatives in foreign countries.

Nyanda revealed that the MK National Council had deadlocked with the MKMVA over representation in the planned MK veterans’ national conference. They will try to meet again to resolve their differences and may call for ANC intervention in the matter.

They expressed concern about a move by some ANC national working committee (NWC) members who attempted to derail the planned national consultative conference proposed by veterans and party stalwarts.

The conference is aimed at the ANC thrashing out a solution to its internal squabbles and restoring the party’s values.

“We must consider this matter now because of the present political crisis, which is more stark. The ANC top leadership is divided, there is a motion of no confidence against the president and downgrades by rating agencies,” Nyanda said.

“It is important that the NEC should meet to deal with this crisis,” added Nyanda.

Makwetla said there was still hope that the proposed national consultative conference would happen, as some NWC members were committed to it.

“The ANC must decide about how to correct itself,” he said.

– ericn@citizen.co.za