MK vets mobilise for Zuma

The Spear of the Nation — Umkhonto weSizwe — is emerging as a potent weapon in the battle for the hearts and minds of delegates to the ANC’s national conference in December. And the backing of MK veterans could be the ace up Jacob Zuma’s sleeve in his bid for the party presidency.

The MK Military Veterans Association (MKMVA) this week announced a demand for voting rights at the ANC conference, with the same level of representation granted to the party’s youth and women’s leagues.

MKMVA also announced the holding of its own national conference from September 27 to 30 in Gauteng as a build-up to the ANC’s watershed Polokwane gathering.

‘Many of these ex-combatants today feel marginalised by the post-1994 political dispensation that they helped to bring about,” the MKMVA noted in a statement. ‘Their grounding in ANC history and tradition affords the movement a fountain wherein it can draw wisdom as we continue with our transformation agenda —”

Former MK national deputy commissar, Sihle Mbongwa, who is part of the organising committee for the MK conference, told the Mail & Guardian: ‘We have vested interests in the ANC as MK. We also want to influence the ANC’s future trajectory.”

Mbongwa gave notice of the intention to challenge the notion that MK’s status could be changed only after the December meeting.

‘The MK had delegates at the 1985 Kabwe conference. No one was ever delegated to be an observer in conference. There is no logic in saying the MK must just be observers. This is a deliberate denial of our rights.

‘We will demand that our status be the first on the discussion table so that we can vote when it comes to voting. And we are going to demand an amendment of the Constitution to allow us voting rights.”

ANC secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe has cautioned that MKMVA members will only attend the conference as observers. He told the M&G that only the national conference could take the decision to give the MK vets the status of a league, giving them constitutional recognition after the congress.

But observers say that even if MK does not win immediate voting rights, its delegates could play a crucial role at the conference — and that MK’s heritage as a symbol of the struggle would be a potent mobiliser.

Motlanthe, who has been broadly supportive of the veterans, told the M&G: ‘Nothing stops the MK vets as a bloc from discussing leadership issues. Remember that even the youth league for a long time could lobby and speak on leadership but only in their capacities as ANC members. They were only given constitutional status to vote in 2002.

‘MK vets are a repository of experience and knowledge and they have a role to mentor the younger generation.”

A provincial ANC executive committee member, who asked not to be named, said contenders for the ANC’s top post needed to have the support of vocal structures on the conference floor as the horse-trading unfolded.

‘It has always been important for any serious contender to have the youth league on his side, because it gives him the advantage of an independent party structure which can publicly campaign for him while other candidates operate within the confines of party regulations.

‘MK is such a structure, and its return to active politics instead of being passive participants will surely give life to Zuma’s campaign.”

A close confidant of Zuma said MK was expected to inject new life into a campaign that has lost some steam.

Several MK structures have come out in support of Zuma, including those in Gauteng, North West, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal.

Said Mbongwa: ‘There’s a lot of support for Zuma in MK, especially as it relates to his dismissal. One of the things that we will deliberate about at our conference is the [presidential] prerogative rule.

‘The view in KwaZulu-Natal is that we will not allow a situation where people believe one comrade is the cleverest and indispensable. No one is indispensable.”

Another senior ex-combatant said: ‘It’s not about Zuma per se, it’s about saving the ANC.”

Though veterans are currently loosely organised, their emergence as a strategic constituency has provoked a struggle for control over MKMVA structures.

This week’s MKMVA initiative carried the stamp of treasurer Dumisani Khoza and chairperson Deacon Mathe, both accused of being part of a self-serving elite that has used the MK name to pursue business opportunities. (see sidebar)

A senior ex-MK figure involved in planning this month’s MK conference said the MKMVA’s future did not necessarily include Khoza and Mathe.

‘They have been in power for 13 years. Why have they not called a conference? They were always backed by [ANC treasurer-general] Mendi Msimang. What we want from them is a financial report. We want as much information as possible on the deals they sealed under the MK name.”

‘Now they are making a noise because they are trying to redeem themselves.”

The MKMVA’s dysfunctional state has spawned a number of contending factions.

Another veteran, Reuben Mahlagare, who has spearheaded attempts to force Khoza and Mathe to account for MKMVA investments, has gathered provincial backing, but views the MK national conference with deep suspicion.

‘There is a move to organise a national meeting to get rid of us,” he told the M&G, warning he was considering seeking a court interdict.

‘They [Khoza and Mathe] don’t have a mandate to call a conference. They are arrogant because of the support of people high in the ANC, but no one wants to go with them.”

But the organisational disputes are unlikely to dent MK’s potential impact at the Polokwane conference.

Lephophoto Mashike, a Wits University sociologist who has researched ex-combatants, said: ‘People don’t care about what’s happening in the organisation. They’ve lost faith in that. It’s about leadership. They say: ‘JZ: he’s our man’; that’s the case even among the former SDUs [township­-based self-defence units].”

Mashike said this was not because of real ideological attachment to Zuma, but out of desperation because of socio-economic conditions. He was seen as potentially sympathetic to the plight of ex-combatants.

‘They are very disillusioned — The Zuma issue might rekindle their interest in politics.”

The issue of MK cadres’ involvement in crime was also a concern, said Mashike.

His research had revealed that 19 people arrested recently while allegedly planning a robbery in Kliptown were former MK members.

The re-emergence of ex-combatants as a political factor in an increasingly populist succession battle has also raised broader security concerns.

A law enforcement official said there was increasing nervousness in intelligence circles about the mobilisation of veterans behind Zuma’s cause.

This official, who did not want to be named because this was ‘a politically sensitive issue”, said there were high levels of resentment among MK vets who felt they had been given a raw deal in the transition to democracy.

The threat of coordinated action by a group of angry people with military training needed to be taken seriously, he said.

Veterans Inc

Is the MKMVA a political organi-sation or a holding company? An observer who relies on the reams of newspaper copy generated by the association’s often controversial and ineffectual fundraising efforts could be forgiven for thinking the latter, writes Stefaans Brümmer.

One of the association’s earliest fundraising efforts — and best-publicised flops — was a 1998 agree-ment between it, arms company British Aerospace (now BAE Systems) and the Airborne Trust, which also promoted BAE’s interests.

BAE was to have given R5-million for the association to set up an ‘industrial agri-business park and training centre” at Doornkuil farm, south of Johannesburg, to re-skill military veterans and provide them with opportunities. The ANC made the farm available to the MKMVA’s then commercial arm, Veterans Heritage Investments.

When the arms deal scandal broke, it emerged that the R5-million was pledged at around the same time as then-defence minister Joe Modise, one of the MKMVA’s founders, was changing selection criteria to favour BAE’s ultimately successful bid to supply South Africa with jets and jet trainers.

Unanswered questions remain about the whereabouts of the donation, as nothing came of the agri-business park.

Veterans Heritage Investments came to an ignominious end. MKMVA elected a new executive in December 1999, including chairperson Deacon Mathe and treasurer Dumisani Khoza.

In 2005, Khoza was quoted as saying: ‘When we were elected in December 1999, we found that MKMVA had no money. The previous executive had formed Veterans Investment Holdings [sic]. It had too many debts, so we could not use its structures.”

Under Mathe and Khoza, MKMVA Investment Holdings and Mabutho Investment Holdings were set up, both of which made investments in the MKMVA’s name. The two companies gained stakes in a raft of companies, including Northam Platinum with Mvelaphanda Holdings, Ubambo, which has shares in Cell C, and in CommuniTel, which owns a stake in Neotel, the second national operator.

Mathe and Khoza have clocked up over 100 company directorships and close corporation memberships since 2000. How many were as MKMVA representatives and how many in their personal capacities is unclear.

By 2003, MKMVA members were protesting against Mathe and Khoza at Luthuli House, where both remain ensconced. A key complaint was that the fruits of the investments made in the association’s name had not reached ordinary members.

In 2005, Business Report questioned the whereabouts of a R13-million payout Mabutho received from Mvelaphanda.

Mvela later said it was satisfied that the money had been paid to the ‘correct contracting party”. The M&G understands that a sizeable chunk of Mabutho is part-held by Mathe and Khoza personally. Their personal stake, overheads and further investments may explain why the Mvela payment did not filter down.

Business Report quoted Khoza and Mathe as saying they could ‘account for every investment”. They admitted to bad investments, but also blamed comrades.