Ramaphosa urged to speak out more strongly against ‘kidnap’ saga

Former Azanian People’s Organisation (Azapo) leader Pule Monama has lashed out at President Cyril Ramaphosa for being an absent president when the nation’s security is being threatened from all sides by rogue forces.

In an open letter to Ramaphosa, Monama, a founder member of Azapo, said the recent hostage-taking of two Cabinet ministers and a deputy minister undermined not just the ministers, but the president’s authority.

“Mr President, you compromised the stature of our ministers of defence and, consequently, of the military, in that they had to give a public account of what happened amid their traumatic experience of that fateful evening; the trauma was just too visible to ignore.

“As they were giving that account, they were speaking in contradictory terms because they had to protect the integrity of the state, while suppressing their true feelings,” Monama said.

He was reacting to the hostage drama at the St Georges Hotel in Irene, Pretoria East, on Thursday, where Defence Minister Thandi Modise, Deputy Minister Thabang Makwetla and Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele were held against their will by a group of non-statutory military veterans.

The group from the former uMkhonto we Sizwe, Azanian People’s Liberation Army and Azanian National Liberation Army demanded to see Ramaphosa and Deputy President David Mabuza, after their meeting with the ministers broke down.

The ministers were rescued by police and the 56 veterans were arrested and charged with kidnapping.

Monama said: “When Steve Biko mobilised us to fight, firstly to liberate our minds and then the country, he never envisaged that a liberated Azania will create a generation of thugs whose interest is not the interest of the country and its people.

“He never believed that black people can be indoctrinated to go to the lengths of maiming and killing each other just to be councillors. Biko undertook to serve our communities without expecting anything in return,” he said.

Monama called the actions of the “war veterans” treasonous.

“This, by all accounts, is an act of treason or something closer to it. This doesn’t only undermine the legitimacy of our constitutional democracy, but threatens state security.”

He told Ramaphosa, as commander-in-chief of the security forces, his authority and the country’s sovereignty had been tested and the defence minister and deputy were undermined by the veterans’ actions.

He said the president should have given the nation an assurance that he was in charge.

“I expected a command from you that very evening and no later. Sadly, that wasn’t to be. As I write this note to you, you have not yet made a statement to that effect, unless I missed it.”

He criticised the president for being in a jovial mood while busy with an ANC campaign for the local government election in Pretoria “as though nothing has happened”.

“Mr President, you may not understand this, but our country’s security is definitely under threat … The events of July may well be coming back to haunt us. All we need from you is the reassurance that we are indeed still living in a safe country under your command.”

The Congress of the People (Cope) said government must take full responsibility for playing politics with the safety and security of the country.

“It is clear government has failed to solve the grievances of the military veterans,” said Cope’s Dennis Bloem.