MK, Apla don’t deserve special treatment – expert

The storming of municipal offices by former combatants seeking jobs and tenders was an untenable situation which government had to stop, head of African Futures and Innovation at Institute for Security Studies, Jakkie Cilliers said yesterday.

Cilliers, who has done studies into the incorporation of liberation movement forces like Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) and the Azanian People’s Liberation Army (Apla) into the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) after the first democratic elections in 1994, said millions of rands were pumped in to help military veterans by the late defence minister Joe Modise and his deputy Ronnie Kasrils.

“Government has rolled out extensive efforts through the SANDF to help MK and Apla, with both forces having been relatively small at the time of integration,” said Cilliers.

“The time has come for the former combatants to be assisted like ordinary South Africans through social grants. The era of special treatment is over.

“We can’t have a situation where government allows certain groups to take the law into their own hands. It signals an absence of the rule of law.”

He said the storming of offices to effect decisions favouring individuals or groups was “criminal and not political”.

With the country facing a 27% unemployment rate, the function of government and the ANC was “to normalise the situation”.

Unlike in Zimbabwe, said Cilliers, South Africa did not have a “people’s bush war” which was fought in rural areas.

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