MKMVA: ANC Has No Legal Right to Break Up Veteran’s Association, Says Niehaus
- Carl Niehaus is spitting venom over the African National Congress' plan to disband the uMkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA)
- Niehaus and other MKMVA members have said they see the decision as a slight and will not take the decision lying down
- Niehaus has put out a rallying call to all veterans to stand firm against division tactics from within the ruling party
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Former African National Congress (ANC) and current MKMVA (uMkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association) spokesman Carl Niehaus has come out in hot defiance over the ruling party's purported move to disband the armed military wing.
Niehaus and other members of the military veteran's association said they will not accept the breaking up of the group with the former declaring that it belongs to the people.
Source: Getty Images
"MKMVA belongs to the people, MKMVA belongs to those who are the MK combatants who dedicated their lives for the liberation of South Africa," Niehaus was quoted saying.
"The ANC that I joined 42 years ago is an organisation that cares for its people. The ANC that I joined would never have done what Gwede Mantashe did last week in that meeting."
The 61-year-old's comments come after the party's national chairperson abruptly ended a zoom call during a virtual sitting of the ANC's top six earlier this month, as reported by EWN.
The party has, in recent times, come under the spotlight as many looking from the inside in, believe it to have some deeply woven divisions running through it. Niehaus has since called on MKMVA members to unite against division tactics from within the party.
"Our freedom will never be full, our people will never be free, our young people will never have jobs. The horizon of a true and liberated South Africa will never arrive until we have full economic liberation in this country," Niehaus declared.
"[We must] bring an end to the strangle grip that white monopoly capital has on every one of us and the way they control this economy."
Call put out, National Office Bearers beckoned
According to the Citizen, Niehaus later, on an eNCA report, reiterated that the ANC has no right – at least not in legal terms – to disband the MKMVA.
"As far as the MKMVA is concerned, we do not accept this disbandment. We have been very clear that we have supported the objective of uniting all ex-MK veterans."
Niehaus has since called on the National Office Bearers of the ANC, who comprise of President Cyril Ramaphosa and Deputy President David Mabuza, among others, to engage with the MKMVA in a sensible way and listen to their concerns.
"This engagement was alien to the democratic culture of the ANC, which has always been to debate and to respect divergent views. MKMVA was being dictated to in an entirely un-ANC manner," added Nihaus.
Hot recommendation unsubstantiated
The MKMVA has reportedly received a recommendation from the ANC stating that they should be disbanded and replaced by a unity conference.
In a previous report by Briefly News, it was stated that the unity conference, which the MK Council forms part of, ought to be convened as soon as possible. Kebby Maphatsoe, the President of the MKMVA, stated that the association is, however, willing to fight any and all attempts by the ruling party to have the association disbanded.
Maphatsoe explained that the MKMVA had done nothing to make the ANC want to disband them, adding that the ruling party has no reason to do so. Reports state that the ANC is planning to disband the MKMVA.
According to TimesLIVE, insiders of the ruling party revealed at the beginning of the week that the National Working Committee (NWC) made the decision to dissolve the MKMVA as well as the MK National Council, which is led by Gregory Nthatisi.
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Source: Briefly News
