Johannesburg – Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association president Kebby Maphatsoe recently warned that South Africa could descend into chaos and experience a coup if former president Jacob Zuma is arrested for failing to appear before the Zondo Commission into Allegations of State Capture.
Maphatsoe’s reckless threats rightfully solicited outrage from many quarters of society and were widely condemned.
The ANC integrity commission summoned him to appear before the structure to explain his unfortunate statement. It boggles the mind how someone who is said to have been a “cook” in the ANC camps during its exile days and ran away from an MK camp is going to lead some civil war.
But that is a topic for another day. It was not the first time that threats of a civil war were made by Zuma supporters.
They threatened a civil war if he were to be recalled as state president. The ANC national executive committee recalled Zuma in February 2018 and there was no civil war. One is reminded of this war talk and empty threats of a civil war by comments made on Monday by ANC deputy secretary- general Jessie Duarte.
Addressing the virtual memorial service of late struggle stalwart Rajes Pillay, Duarte said South Africans could not live without the ANC, as this could lead to a civil war. Duarte’s comments were not innocent.
There are many ANC leaders who are prepared to take the country down the civil war path should the party lose power. For them, the party has an inherent birth right to lead the country forever due to the role it played in ushering in the democratic dispensation. It is this arrogance and sense of entitlement that has come to characterise the politics of the movement since the dawn of democracy.
This posture led to the party’s electoral defeat in critical metros such as Johannesburg, Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay in 2016.
It is this brazen attitude that has eroded the credibility of the ANC among many South Africans and caused distrust between the government and citizens.
Certainly, it is this mentality that, to a large extent, informs state capture and ineptitude in the state.
Comrades believe that we owe them something and that the ANC should be in power forever.
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