Johannesburg - It was supposed to be a studio fight to settle the score on who the real uMkhonto weSizwe veterans are. Independent Media invited both the uMkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association and uMkhonto weSizwe National Council to its studio in Johannesburg.
The National Council failed to arrive but MKMVA, represented by its spokesperson Carl Niehaus, came to set the record straight - or at least his version thereof.
Dressed in a dark blue designer suit and pink tie and shirt Niehaus took to the headphones of Independent, defiant to protect his team as the real MK vets. "Where's MK Council? I want to debate them here. We (MKMVA) are the real MK veterans".
Sitting down with Independent Media's Head of Politics Sifiso Mahlangu, Niehaus wasted no time in explaining why MKMVA was the real McCoy and not MK Council.
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Asked about the fight outside the ANC headquarters in Johannesburg on Monday Niehaus said: "MK Council is a group of members who gathered themselves to form an organisation. They are a factional grouping and an informal structure. MKMVA is the only legal and constitutional structure"
Niehaus said although they supported Dlamini-Zuma ahead of the conference and she lost, they have accepted that and moved on but they are worried that there are some comrades who are still steeped along pre-Nasrec lines of thinking.
The Weekly Report host Sifiso Mahlangu chats with uMkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association spokesperson Carl Niehaus. Picture: Floyd Matlala/Studio Independent
Asked if he still supported former president Jacob Zuma even after allegations of corruption were raised against him at the Judicial Commision of Inquiry into State Capture, Niehaus said: "Those are just allegations. We don't believe Zuma will get a free trial. It is a trial that has had much political interference in the last 15 years. My support of Zuma is not a factional position. It is comradeship".