[Photo: News24]

Reports indicate a strategic move by the African National Congress (ANC) to deploy uMkhonto weSizwe war veterans, aiming to fortify its grip on power, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal. Concerns have surfaced over a substantial portion of the opposition within the province, where the MK Party has gained traction despite many of its members being either too young or not born during the era of the ANC’s armed wing, uMkhonto weSizwe.

In response, the ANC plans to mobilise authentic uMkhonto weSizwe veterans to counter the MK Party’s influence, as a recent City Press report details.

Political analyst Nteboheleng Tshela, in an interview with Radio Islam, underscored the historical importance of the MK party as the armed wing of the ANC. She emphasised that MK symbolised the willingness to engage in armed struggle for the ANC’s cause of freedom for the people. Despite not being involved in active combat, MK’s identity and purpose were widely acknowledged within the political landscape.

“With Zuma taking the name and taking it as further as an active political party, he is taking what the MK stood for and taking them to a place where they can participate fully in the economic, political, and social parts of South Africa, being able to be heard. But more than anything, it was to snub the ANC in their face with the one thing that has always been very precious to them: the MK wing,” she said.

Tshela suggests that apart from Jacob Zuma, the MK party has not had a clear leader on whom it can depend.

“It is almost like personality cult leadership. With him not being able to be on the candidate list, it will be a dent to the MK party; they are not showing anyone who can take over. In the ANC, we have all these leaders but no one to take over; no definitive successor’s plan exists but they have many leaders in different roles. But MK has been solely based on Zuma and nothing else on policies that one can interrogate,” she said.

Tshela highlighted that uMkhonto weSizwe has endured years of neglect and marginalisation, lacking the attention it deserves. Despite the creation of the MK department within the government, veterans feel they have not been adequately included or given opportunities to participate fully.

“For a lot of them, outside of the trauma they experienced, the fact that they were not re-introduced into society in a fair way after 1994, and they were not allowed to participate really did anger them. So them being of any kind of significance in the fight against the newly formed MK political party, I don’t see it working,” she said.

She contends that mobilising uMkhonto weSizwe war veterans by the ANC to combat the MK political party would hold little significance, as these veterans have consistently been sidelined and overlooked over time.

“If anything, with Jacob Zuma being a former intelligence head within the actual armed struggle, maybe a few of them could be turned around,” she said.

LISTEN to the full interview with Ml Junaid Kharsany and Political analyst Nteboheleng Tshela, here.