Has the current ANC been infiltrated by apartheid spies?

Rebellious retired former South African National Defence Force (SANDF) defence intelligence chief Maomela “Mojo” Motau claims the ANC has been infiltrated by apartheid and foreign spies, hell-bent on destabilising and destroying the governing party.

Motau said the ANC needed to get rid of the spooks within its ranks if it is to survive.

The allegations were also contained in a document titled “Tshwane Declaration” which, he claimed, was adopted at the ANC Cadre Summit 2, held in Pretoria on 30 April.

ALSO READ: OP-ED: ‘We don’t know this General Motau,’ says MK National Council

He said the ANC was infested with apartheid agents, foreign intelligence and security agencies who were directly and indirectly responsible for the deaths of many people during the fight against the apartheid regime.

They were now either blackmailed or deliberately willing to work against the movement and its people. They had consciously and deliberately elected to continue serving its erstwhile enemies.

Motau said the current and past ANC leadership knew about these spies – a list was compiled during the Nelson Mandela administration and handed over to him.

But the government and ANC itself failed to act on it. The agents had infiltrated the ANC and had campaigned for party positions with the intention to destroy the party.

“These people are found throughout the movement and society. They occupy positions of leadership and influence in the ANC and society in general.

“This is one of the greatest challenges we are facing today.

“Without addressing this challenge the ANC can only proceed to die,” Motau said. Motau said he had trained as an uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) cadre at Emagojeni camp in Zambia after joining in 1974, was later in the MK high command and retired from the SANDF in 2009.

Now, he is part of a campaign, along with other former MK cadres, to cleanse, reclaim and refocus the ANC. He said they wanted to reclaim it from the clutches of neocolonialism and strive to maintain the party as the main agent of change.

Motau suggested the current ANC national executive committee (NEC) must be dissolved immediately because it was “highly compromised”.

He said it was well known that the Nasrec NEC was not democratically elected, but bought. “This leadership constitutes the most serious threat against the survival of the ANC.

“Comrades Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma and Kgalema Motlanthe [all former presidents] are appropriate comrades to comprise a team to confront the listed enemy agents, starting from those who are serving in the NEC and other leadership structures.”

The three former leaders will “give confidence to our people that all agents will be treated equally without favour”.

According to Motau, this was in line with the vision of Mandela, who gave Mbeki and the late former defence minister Joe Modise the task of getting rid of enemy agents.

He said the list of agents was compiled from the records of Military Intelligence, the special branch of the apartheid South African Police and the National Intelligence Service.

“The task was not completed as Modise passed away suddenly after confronting a few enemy agents in the Military Intelligence list,” the document said.

At the first Cadre Summit, last year, former cadres had adopted a turn-around strategy 2025 to reclaim the ANC, including replacing the NEC with an interim national task team.

Motau refuted criticism from the MK national council that he was a loose cannon with no support.

The council claimed Motau had begun to show his true colours as the “enemy of the revolution” and the ANC while the MK Military Veterans Association said he was a member but not mandated by it, nor spoke on its behalf.

“Let them say what they want, we are the cadres of the ANC and we have been defending the ANC. “I don’t think the people you are talking about did anything serious or substantial in MK. I don’t know them,” Motau said.

Attempts yesterday to get comment from the ANC on the group failed.

ericn@citizen.co.za