Johannesburg - The Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans' Association (MKMVA) appeared to backtrack on reports on Monday that its chairman Kebby Maphatsoe accused Public Protector Thuli Madonsela of being a CIA agent.
Maphatsoe's special adviser, Ike Moroe, denied the statement but conceded that reference to the CIA had been made.
“He did make reference to the possibility of a CIA machination in an attempt to destabilise the country,” Moroe told reporters in Johannesburg.
“(However) nothing is impossible... from the international intelligence community.”
The Star reported earlier on Monday that Maphatsoe, who is also deputy minister of defence and military veterans, had accused Madonsela of being a CIA plant.
“We can't allow people to hijack the ANC. We'll fight and defend the African National Congress. uThuliumele asitshele ukuthi ubani ihandler yakhe (Thuli must tell us who her handler is),” Maphatsoe reportedly said at the tombstone unveiling of Umkhonto weSizwe combatant Linda 'Lion of Tshiawelo' Jabane in Soweto on Saturday.
“They are even using our institution now... These Chapter Nine institutions were created by the ANC but are now being used against us, and if you ask why it is the Central Intelligence Agency. Ama (the) Americans want their own CEO in South Africa and we must not allow that,” Maphatsoe reportedly said.
Maphatsoe on Monday said the MK members had been trained to spot “enemy agents”.
“We know how foreign intelligence works and we are not just thumbsucking. We've got those (sic) expertise amongst us and we not taking chances,” he said.
“We have people who were in the intelligence of the African National Congress (who are) able to identify enemy agents...”
“They (foreign intelligence) create their own person and popularise him or her. That's how they work, they create you... they make sure you are well accepted by the people,” he said.
Maphatsoe denied that the MKMVA was attacking the office of the public protector.
Madonsela has come under attack from the ANC and some alliance structures ever since sending a letter to President Jacob Zuma last month asking him for details of when he would respond to recommendations in her report on the upgrades at his home at Nkandla, in KwaZulu-Natal.
“She thinks she is God,” Maphatsoe said on Monday.
“It is clear she wants the head of the president. She's no longer playing the ball, she's playing the person.”
He claimed Madonsela was running a parallel government and called on her to come to her senses.
“Her actions leave us with no choice but to say her actions are that of enemy agents.”
The Star reported that Madonsela said she would take legal action against Maphatsoe, and asked him to retract and apologise, or “provide incontrovertible evidence” that she was an agent.
Comment from her office was not immediately available.
According to section nine of the Public Protector Act, it is a crime to insult the public protector.
Maphatsoe on Monday also called on Madonsela to prove she was an ex-MK operative.
“We would also be interested to know who trained her, and where was she trained,” chairman Kebby Maphatsoe told reporters in Johannesburg.
“Peacetime freedom fighters who claim to be members of MK are hurtful to our cause, because their claims and allegations seem a concerted effort to besmirch the name of MK and ANC before the eyes of South Africans.”
Madonsela had reportedly made the claim during a radio interview last week.
Sapa