The scourge of Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans’ Association leaders

The MK Military Veterans’ Association (MKMVA) was established principally to fend for the welfare needs of former Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) combatants, veterans of the struggle for liberation; and to keep them within the ANC’s guiding political ambit. MK itself, the military wing of the African National Congress during struggle days, ceased to exist in 1994, when South Africa’s first democratic government was formed.

MK members, like those of other armed formations that were involved on either side of the liberation struggle, were absorbed into the South African National Defence Force, the country’s national army. Those who did not wish to continue in the role of soldiers took up opportunities elsewhere in civilian service. 

The extent to which the MKMVA leadership has fulfilled its primary mandate is unclear. The Military Veterans Act of 2011 placed an obligation on the state to provide qualifying military veterans and their dependents, from all veterans’ organisations, services and benefits that include: a military pension; housing; free access to military health services; free/subsidised access to public transport; skills acquisition and education support services; job placement; burial support; entrepreneurial support services; and counselling. 

This, no doubt, went a long way towards providing a substantial part of the assistance the MKMVA was set up to source. It must be said, though, that the service provided by the Department of Military Veterans has consistently fallen short of expectations, to the obvious detriment of the intended beneficiaries. Unfortunately, the appointment of Maphatsoe as deputy minister in charge of veterans’ affairs did not a whit to redress the deficiency. 

It appears that the MKMVA leadership made efforts that included acquiring shares for the organisation in a number of companies, including one called Islandsite Investments, owned by the Gupta brothers, notorious for masterminding the crippling “State Capture” project. (The Guptas are currently fugitives. They and Salim Essa have been blacklisted by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and may not do business in the US, and with US businesses, because of their involvement in grand corruption in South Africa.)

Maphatsoe is quoted as saying he didn’t understand why people had problems with the Gupta family. He described criticism of the family as “racist and xenophobic”. With good reason. In 2010 the Guptas footed the bill for the MKMVA’s four-day national general council to the tune of R850,000.

During Maphatsoe’s chairmanship of the MKMVA Trust, an investigation was undertaken by SizweNtsalubaGobodo into the management of the trust’s finances. It unearthed gross irregularities. It found that Maphatsoe and three others personally received millions in benefits from MKMVA accounts. The South Gauteng High Court ruled that Maphatsoe and his friends must be removed from the trust. The court ruled that they had failed to exercise their responsibilities, prejudicing the intended beneficiaries. It is not easy to locate published MKMVA annual financial statements.

How sad for the duped and abused MKMVA members.

Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans' Association chairperson Kebby Maphatsoe during a briefing by the ANC's top six officials at the party's headquarters in Johannesburg. (Photo: Gallo Images / Foto24 / Lucky Maibi)