Durban - Durban’s MK veterans were prepared to meet “fire with fire” if there were continued attempts to “go back to apartheid”.
This was the view of Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA) KZN chairperson Themba Mavundla during a protest on the N3 near the Mariannhill toll plaza on Friday morning. They also burnt the old South African flag.
Hundreds of veterans and supporters embarked on the protest action that saw traffic come to a standstill.
“We had this protest to show that the veterans will not keep quiet. We are protesting against the recent Black Monday protest where people were calling for an end to the murder of white farmers.
“Our point of view is, why must there be only a protest for white people? Black people are also killed and black farmworkers are also killed. Criminality is criminality and knows no colour,” said Mavundla.
MK veterans demonstrate near Mariannhill. Picture: Lungani Zungu
The Black Monday protest, held on the last Monday of October, was supported by AfriForum and AgriSA, after an appeal from farmer Boland Chris Loubser in the Western Cape who lamented the murder of Stellenbosch wine farmer Joubert Conradie.
Mavundla said while they condemned the murder, the protest was used as a front by people who wanted to “go back to the apartheid days”.
“These people raised the old South African flag while they were protesting. There was no differentiation between politics and criminality."
“This is why we say the protest was a front for politics. There are some people who want to go back to the old days because they benefited during apartheid and black people suffered,” he said.
During Friday’s protest, the veterans burnt the old apartheid South Africa flag.
“That flag needs to be only seen in a museum. If those people wanted to raise the flag, we will burn it. We are not afraid to use fire against fire,” Mavundla said.
Road Traffic Inspectorate’s Zinhle Mngomezulu said traffic had backed up both ways on the N3.
“Some drivers had to sit in the traffic for two hours, we had to divert traffic where we could and made announcements live on air to ask people to not use the freeway if passing that way,” she said.