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ANC military veterans have warned that a coup could ensue if former President Jacob Zuma were arrested for leaving Zondo’s commission of inquiry into the state’s capture.
The leader of the Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association, aligned with Zuma, Kebby Maphatsoe, said on Tuesday: “We are not saying that Zuma is special or above the law, no, but we are saying that you are dealing with a person that, a former president, but he was also a former commander-in-chief [of the SA National Defence Force] Y [he is] a boss in MKMVA so obviously I know their position and they are not going to be happy. “
He said that those who loved Zuma might react emotionally and hinted that this could result in his supporters ousting President Cyril Ramaphosa.
“In other countries it happened that there were coups,” he said.
Maphatsoe confirmed that he thought this could also happen in South Africa.
“This happened in many countries in Africa. These things, if you don’t treat them carefully and if you haven’t learned from what happened in other countries, we can’t go to that situation in South Africa, ”he said.
Maphatsoe also warned of widespread violence during the marches by MKMVA members, including by “opportunists and anarchists” and criminals, who might hijack the marches, but also by those who were unemployed and genuinely desperate.
“We are honestly advising as people with experience in security risks,” said Maphatsoe, who was deputy defense minister from 2014 until last year. “South Africans, when they get up, it becomes difficult to control, with the unemployment rate so high.”
People claiming to be members of MKMVA are already targeting mostly foreign Durban shop owners, and association leaders have voiced support for a growing number of violent and criminal attacks on foreign truck drivers.
Violence can spread
Maphatsoe said this kind of violence could spread.
“Once people get in this mood, [to] the whole country.”
Maphatsoe said the veterans did not want to focus on a foreign interference claim that was wrongly included in the statement.
In a part of the statement that was retracted, but not removed from the final versions, the MKMVA says that Zondo “was subjected to strong pressure by various foreign-funded NGOs and other reactionary forces advising him” to press charges. against Zuma.
Maphatsoe said it was not discussed at the agency’s national executive committee meeting in Durban on Friday, with the MKMVA preferring to focus on the threat of violence stemming from the charges, rather than the allegations of “foreign pressure.”
He refused to be dragged to where the claim might have originated, or if the MKMVA had any evidence for such a claim.
Maphatsoe was forced to apologize in 2014 when he called former public protector Thuli Madonsela a CIA agent, and someone who worked with foreign intelligence to destabilize South Africa, without being able to prove it and without the backing of the ANC.
Nkandla Recommendations
This was in response to her sending a letter to Zuma, asking him when he would respond to the recommendations in his report on his home in Nkandla. His office, however, received training funding from the US government’s foreign aid and development arm (USAID), for training, along with other Chapter 9 institutions.
The ANC has recently expressed concern about what it considers the politicization of some SANDF members, after a group met with retired defense intelligence chief Lieutenant General Maomela “Mojo” Motau, himself a former commander of Umkhonto we Sizwe.
The group presented documents to the ANC, claiming that its enemy was within the party and that it was losing its character as a liberation movement.
SANDF director Solly Shoke warned members of the defense forces not to attend group meetings, which some in the ANC fear could be used to plan a coup. Maphatsoe said MKMVA members were being encouraged to participate in policy discussions in the lead up to the ANC’s national general council, which had to be postponed from June to the first half of next year due to the Covid-19 shutdown.
She said the MKMVA would push for similar representation at ANC leadership conferences and meetings like the ANC Women’s League or the Youth League, which are allowed the same number of conference delegates as the provinces.
They are also allowed to send their president and secretary to meetings of the national executive committee.
The MKMVA currently only has observer status at conferences. He has asked the ANC for permission to hold his own conference, after unity talks with the MK Council, a rival group of veterans who opposed Zuma’s leadership, fell apart about a month ago.
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