By The ANC has dragged uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) Party led by Jacob Zuma before the Electoral Court to declare its registration unlawful. Upon hearing arguments from both sides on Tuesday at the High Court in Bloemfontein, the Court reserved its judgement.
It was a long day in court with thousands of supporters of both the ANC and MK occupying the streets of Bloemfontein to support their leaders and parties. The leader of ACT Party and disgruntled former SG of the ANC Ace Magashule also showed up in support of MK party.
The whole precinct housing the Free State Legislature, the headquarters of the Mangaung Municipality and High Court were closed off with the police monitoring the situation.
Leaving the court, Jacob Zuma went to address his constituency and ended his address with his signature song ‘mshini wam,’ while the Secretary General of the ANC was due to address the media about the outcomes and the ANC’s position on the matter.
Zuma, during his address, told his supporters that he is confident that MK will win this battle as the historic military wing did not belong to the ANC but was made up by freedom fighters, not the ANC itself. It was an autonomous body that was part of the family of the ANC. He said members joining the liberation party did not automatically make them members of uMkhonto we Sizwe, and vice versa.
He told MK members that MK arguments in court were so strong that the ANC was just muttering and could not make up on what they were attempting to say.
“I don’t know why somebody said this is ANC, no, it is part of the ANC family, uMkhonto we Sizwe. You can’t claim that it is the ANC no no! It is now that we are faced with a problem, that our freedom is being undermined, it is being killed; and we say, this is the time to have uMkhonto we Sizwe party,” said Zuma to shouts of approval and clapping of hands from the crowed.
“We listened to the debate today; I don’t know why people can make themselves feel so bad. I can’t tell you what was the argument really, because there has been no argument presented here that this party belongs to the ANC. ANC is an organisation of its own, uMkhonto we Sizwe it’s an organisation of its own. We are going to compete with the ANC,” continued the former President Jacob Zuma.
The Secretary General of the ANC Fikile Mbalula addressed the media at the ANC headquarters in the Free State, Bloemfontein, where he told the media that Jacob Zuma lacks moral integrity, for if he had integrity, he would have started a party on his own name like Julius Malema with the EFF, but instead he steals from the ANC. He is a man with no truth, he started out saying he is only supporting MK party but now he is its leader.
Mbalula said the liberation party has faced a number of counter revolutionary occurrences that sort to divide the ANC and divert its focus. He says stealing the historic, heritage and intellectual assets of the liberation party is part of the counter revolutionary propaganda aimed at communicating a multiplicity of political outposts claiming legitimacy from the broad history the African National Congress.
The SG said they went to court to challenge the use of the name and symbols of uMkhonto we Sizwe led by Jacob Zuma, who was once a hero and has become a villain.
“It is a matter of historical record that MK was a military wing of the ANC and it operated under the political direction of the National Executive Committee. It is an integral part of the history and heritage of the ANC. The formation of breakaway parties is party of the strategy and tactics of counter revolution, whose goal is to stop or derail the national democratic revolution,” said Fikile Mbalula.
The SG says the aim of MK is to sow a seed of division within the ruling party, but they are aware of this and will not be deterred. Mbalula affirmed that the court case is not diverting the party’s attention from electioneering ahead of the national and provincial elections in May; but instead, it has energised the ANC’s election campaign.
“We need to characterise Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto we Sizwe, it is not really members of uMkhonto we Sizwe who are disgruntled who have gone to the party,” remarked Mbalula.
He said though there are splinter members of uMkhonto we Sizwe like Des van Rooyen who went to Zuma, a lot of them still remain in the ANC. He said MK members have their problems that the party is attending to, however, Jacob Zuma was President but he did not attend to the issues of MK veterans, as such, the ANC has inherited the problems and they are still dealing with them to date.
However, Mbalula said the ANC does not apportion the failures to attend to the problems of the war veterans to Zuma, but as an organisation they reflect on where they went wrong and try to correct that.
“We cannot then globally say MK party of Jacob Zuma, which has been formed out of opportunism stealing the ANC asset like that it’s a problem of MK, no, we’ve got soldiers here, we’ve got MK combatants who are still with us and they do have their grievances, they do have issues, which as the ANC this week and in the next week we are resolving all those particular matters including their recognition as a structure,” said the SG of the ANC.
Fikile Mbalula acknowledges that Zuma might win the case, because winning the case is not a moral issue, it is about who puts the best argument forward and what is legally permissible. He said Zuma has an advantage because the IEC agrees with Zuma in a particular way and the ANC has since challenged the IEC in that regard.
Even if Zuma wins the case, according to Mbalula, the ANC will go on and claim their trade mark.
“He wins the case for whom? Will he go to sleep well that he won the case for stealing an asset of the ANC? And that he has plunged the revolution in a crisis or in precarious position? That is him, at the age of 80, will he go to sleep well? That he is doing something for the revolution, he is deepening it, he is doing everything that is good, I would not be proud of that,” said Fikile Mbalula.
