‘Concerned’ MKMVA combatants: ‘Cyril must explain who gave JZ poisoned liver’

A group calling itself “cadres of the African National Congress and ex-combatants of uMkhonto weSizwe the revolutionary People’s Army” has written a letter to ANC SG Ace Magashule to “address” what it termed “startling revelations” against Cyril Ramaphosa made by Gayton McKenzie in his book, ‘Let’s Kill Zuma By All Means’.

“We have not opted to go to the courts as has become fashionable lately with some of those calling themselves members of the ANC,” reads the letter from ‘concerned uMkhonto weSizwe veterans’ The Citizen has seen. The group urges Magashule to act, as “members of the ANC have to seriously and urgently reflect on our concerns and take a stand”.

“We are surprised and shocked that a member who joined the ANC only in 1991 has been elevated, with the overt support of big business, banks, the white-owned and controlled media, and courts, president of the ANC. Our leaders in exile for many years, warned us to be wary of leaders who will appear from nowhere and lead the movement away from its objectives.

“We are actually saying Cyril Ramaphosa is not a genuine leader of the ANC, and has a lot to answer to. His leadership of the ANC is suspect because he does not fall in the category of the tried and tested,” the letter continues.

Ramaphosa is, among other accusations, said to be “indebted to White Monopoly Capital” hellbent on “destruction of the ANC and the revolution”, and further said to have “expected to be made deputy president” before, and when this failed, “he simply left the organisation and joined business and we don’t know what else”.

Ramaphosa is alleged to have, after joining the ANC in 1991 and becoming its secretary-general, “tabled a motion to remove Thabo Mbeki as Chief Negotiator at CODESA and the removal of Jacob Zuma as head of intelligence, both senior and long serving members, at the NWC and the decision was adopted by the NEC without knowledge and approval of Nelson Mandela”.

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The group is also complaining that “Cyril Ramaphosa is so hungry for power and control that when Mandela was inaugurated the president of South Africa, he did not attend”, and asked: “How can such a man be allowed to lead the ANC?”

“We also demand that the leadership of the ANC who were there when poisoned liver was placed before the president, Jacob Zuma, be revealed to the membership of the ANC and the nation,” the veterans association said, and enquired: “How can the organisation’s top leadership sit on such information?” and implored Luthuli House to find out where the liver came from, who prepared it and who wanted Zuma to “eat it and die”?

The letter also wants to know if “Ramaphosa’s involvement with the callous gunning down of so many mineworkers in Marikana [was] a deliberate tactic by him to tarnish the name and image of the ANC? One moment he is presented before the people as a champion if the working class, a leader in NUM and the UDF, the next moment as a capitalist in the same league with White Monopoly Capital.”

“Cyril is also mentioned in the saga of an African businessman, Sam Molope, who lost his bakery because of Cyril Ramaphosa. It looks to us like [wherever] Cyril Ramaphosa is there is a gnashing of teeth by the people and rejoicing in the opposing camps.”

The letter demands “on the organisation in its entirety and the leadership in particular to give answers this very month of January, 2018”.

MKMVA spokesperson Carl Niehaus said the “individual members of MKMVA” gave the press briefing without the blessing of the national executive committee and therefore were not speaking on behalf of the organisation.

“We therefore we can’t verify or discuss the content. I don’t know what was said, and we can not take responsibility for it. No one can stop any person from holding a press conference in South Africa, and therefore we will have to see what was said there.

“Depending on what was said and whether it is necessary, me might take action. This will depend on what took place there, but let me emphasise it was not an official MKMVA conference,” Niehaus said.

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