War Vets out of their heads

The Umkhonto We Sizwe veterans Association really require some upstairs inspection. The said Vets recently went to Cape Town to deliver a memorandum requiring Premier Helen Zille’s apology about whatever she said about South Africa's number 1 citizen, J. Gedleyihlekisa Zuma. I say they need counselling because they then hurled insults when MEC Madikizela wanted to receive the memorandum on behalf of Zille.

"Voetzek," they said apparently, laughing and chanting with the police watching and guarding against any possibility of that march turning into something 'ungovernable', as they have threatened if Zille does not apologise to President Zuma. Unless the vets are really that old and forgetful, they should have known that they went there at a wrong time when Premier Zille was in Pretoria attending Cabinet Lekgotla with the very President she's supposed to apologise to. Are the vets even aware that Zuma and Zille are talking via the phone? I wonder. Aren't the vets supposed to know better about peace and harmony since they have worked all their lives doing, or attempting to do that? Again I wonder.

And what is the ANC saying about all these threats that are being toyed with by that group? Is the ANC going to be mum just like they were when Malema was saying all those things before the elections? I expect the ANC leadership to intervene in such serious cases as threatening to make the WP, or any part of the country for that matter, ungovernable. Demonstrations are allowed in democratic societies because they might yield fruits to those oppressed, but threats shouldn't. Is Zuma afraid of calling the MK Vets to order because he is afraid they may turn to his government? And just how powerful are they?

Too powerful to control? Who's funding them? I remember reading somewhere in the print media last year during the Zimbabwean elections how apparently Mugabe wanted to concede defeat but the Military Vets (equivalent to the MK Vets) 'forced' him not to. Are we in the same situation here, maybe just a bit differently? I am really afraid of where our country is headed if such militant organs are allowed to do as they wish.

Is there more to what we are all seeing here? Is this an ANC strategy to bully the opposition parties? Threats may lead to action, and Mr. President, did we, the voters, go to the polls for that? Please President Zuma, now you are a President to all of us residing in South Africa, even those who might have not voted for the ANC, or if at all. You are a President to even all the foreign nationals who now live with us here, and the world is watching this development with interest, and it won't be in our best interest if you ignored this.

The biggest fights in the world did not start with the biggest weapons; they started with a few unruly members of the community, and blossomed into something regretful. Mr. President, you are known to be a listener, and I may not be that important a person to you, or anyone, because I am not into politics, but I am a citizen of South Africa, of Africa, a son of the soil just like you are and please hear me out here.

I am writing this letter after having just watched the documentary, The Burning Man, a sad story of what happened during the now infamous Xenophobic attacks, and I must say that I felt closer to my continent than ever before, and I also realised that what happened during the xenophobic attacks started very softly, if I may say so.

The function of the MK Veterans in a free democratic society like ours puzzles me. I would have thought that the re-emergence of the said veterans was just to make sure that the families of those who died or got injured either physically or mentally during the struggle years are well taken care of by our government just like a lot of the former apartheid soldiers and policemen and women are still receiving some sort of grants, not what they are threatening to do and the pitiful language they are using.

I am a sad man today because I don't know what tomorrow will be like if threats like these are made and ignored by those we voted for. It's time we act, and stop talking, because cliched as it may be, talk is cheap, very cheap, and threats can be rich, very rich.

First published by Cape Times