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Former President Jacob Zuma seen in court.
- On Friday, MKMVA members formed an honor guard outside Nkandla when its national executive committee visited former president Jacob Zuma.
- The association said it will try to avoid the arrest of the former president.
- The visit was not only to show his support for Zuma, but was also part of his 60th anniversary celebrations.
The uMkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA) says it will do everything in its power to protect former President Jacob Zuma from arrest.
On Friday, the MKMVA visited Zuma’s farm in Nkandla as part of its visits to veteran MK veterans in celebration of its 60th anniversary, as well as to show its support for the former president amid his ongoing battle with the Zondo commission.
Zuma is expected to appear before the commission on Monday, but has insisted that he will risk jail time and defy an order from the Constitutional Court.
In a statement issued Saturday by its spokesman Carl Niehaus, the MKMVA said:
Our message to them is very clear: Before they continue their insidious factional political project of attacking President Zuma and trying to arrest him, they will first have to confront us. We, as MKMVA, will not allow you to further harass, humiliate or even arrest one of MK’s most illustrious commanders. Enough is enough!
The association visited the former president with its entire MK team and formed an honor guard at the gates of Nkandla, which it said was a sign that it was “ready to defend and protect our patron-in-chief.”
“This message that it is really enough now was a constant thread of revolutionary commitment in all messages of support that individual members of MKMVA NEC delivered to Chairman Zuma, when each spoke during the meeting,” he said.
During its audience with Zuma, the MKMVA expressed concern about the division within the ANC and what it called the ruling party’s failure to implement radical economic transformation.
“It was noted with frustration and concern that black businesses, and especially African ones, are increasingly on the defensive and are not receiving support from our current government, despite the ANC being the ruling party.”
The MKMVA accused the state capture commission and its president, vice president of the Supreme Court [Raymond] Zondo from being “tools of attack in the hands of reactionaries” to prevent the liberation of black South Africans and destroy the ANC.
In the statement, Niehaus said that Zuma and the MKMVA agreed that the organization – “who as ex-MK combatants are the cutting edge of the ANC’s spear” – must prevent those who want to destroy the party.
On Saturday, however, President Cyril Ramaphosa reaffirmed the ANC’s support for the Zondo commission, at the start of the party’s national executive committee meeting this weekend.
