Johannesburg - In the wake of the contentious claims by former president Jacob Zuma before the Zondo commission that some senior members of the ruling ANC were once spies, the association for military veterans of the party is pressing ahead with its push to have a formal commission to probe the allegations further.
The spokesperson of uMkhonto Wesizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA), Carl Niehaus said it was no longer an issue of whether they want the probe or not but a matter of lobbying the party’s national executive committee (NEC) when it meets next weekend to formally start the process.
Speaking to Independent Media on Thursday, Niehaus said they would write a formal letter to the party’s secretary general, Ace Magashule and ask him to place the matter on the agenda of the NEC meeting.
“We cannot be led by former spies and counter revolutionaries, they have to be exposed and rooted out,” he said, adding that this is already a formal resolution of the MKMVA.
Zuma claimed that former ministers, Ngoako Ramatlhodi and General Siphiwe Nyanda were spies. They have since both denied the claims with Nyanda saying Zuma was bitter that he supported calls for him to step down.
The call for a probe started on Monday, with MKMVA members, Kebby Maphatsoe (President of the association) and Des Van Rooyen (Treasurer) calling for a probe almost immediately after Zuma made the claims.
Magashule has already said the claims are very serious and should not be ignored, implying that Zuma could not, out of the blue, manufacture his claims because he is a former head of the party’s exile era intelligence.
However, political analyst, Xolani Dube, said the call was not going to work, adding that by looking back, the party was painting a picture of a stagnating political formation that have a bleak future.
“There was a Hefer commission (set up by President Thabo Mbeki, originally to investigate allegations that national director of public prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka was an apartheid spy) which failed,” Dube said.
He added that he doubts that they can secure the services of a judge if the ANC forms the commission and said they must leave the country out of this as it was an internal ANC matter.
“If they want to create a catastrophe (for the party), let it be, but they must not involve us as a country.”