The Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans' Association (MKMVA) in Gauteng on Sunday called for the defence of the ANC and President Jacob Zuma.
“Attacks on the ANC require all military combatants of MKMVA in Gauteng and elsewhere to stand up and defend the ANC,” chairman Duma Mlambo told reporters in Johannesburg.
“Attacks on Zuma's persona are an attack on the ANC. We will not use guns, but policies to make sure that the image of the ANC is intact.”
Mlambo said there had been “well-calculated” political and personal attacks on Zuma following the ANC's Polokwane conference in 2007, at which he was elected party leader.
“They project the leadership under Zuma as corrupt and indecisive... and the ANC as having lost its moral compass.”
He said there was no leadership crisis in the ANC.
“There is no leadership crisis in our midst... there is no feud. What we see is contestation, which is democracy at play.”
The MKMVA wanted Zuma to be re-elected at the ANC's conference in Mangaung in December. - Sapa