MK Council not pleased with talks seeking ANC national consultative conference

The Umkhonto we Sizwe national council says it's concerned about the manner in which the ruling party is handling talks about the possibility of having a national consultative conference.

"The difficulty we are confronted with is... persuading the African National Congress to hold a national consultative conference that is de-linked from the policy conference‚ so that we are able to deliberate on all matters affecting the ANC with a view of trying to correct them‚" said former chief of the SANDF‚ General Siphiwe Nyanda.

He was speaking on the sidelines of the national assembly of MK veterans which is being held at Nasrec in Soweto.

The purpose of the gathering will be to report back to MK veterans on the progress and outcomes of the engagements with ANC leadership on issues the steering committee was mandated to pursue by the gathering held on 17 December 2016.

"The attitude of the leadership of the ANC‚ or the decision of it‚ seems to be that we won't get a national consultative conference as we have envisaged and proposed.

"The real issue is about the national consultative conference because we believe that we may correct other stuff. We may fix MKMVA (Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association)‚ we may fix the Veterans League but the ANC is our first prize really‚" added Nyanda.

The MK council wants the party's June policy conference canned and replaced with an urgent national consultative conference.

• Mashatile hits out at ANC leaders already publicly campaigning to lead the partyAfrican National Congress Gauteng leader Paul Mashatile has lashed out at leaders in the movement who have been publicly campaigning to lead the party before its elective conference in December. 

Two days have been set aside for the conference‚ following a request from its stalwarts to have a separate consultative conference two days ahead of the national policy conference to look into the state of the party.

Turning to the state of the movement‚ Nyanda said they can no longer support a movement that no longer has the people's interest at heart.

• DA willing to work with anyone willing to remove ANCDemocratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane has reiterated the party’s stance that it is willing to work with anyone who shares its broad values and is willing to work towards the removal of the ANC. 

"Our love for the ANC compels us to try to arrest its downward moral spiralling‚ to arrest its descent into the dark reaches of corruption‚ to arrest the decay of our state institutions which are being used to further factional interests‚" Nyanda said.

The MKMVA is currently hosting an extended national executive committee meeting‚ which will include officials from provinces across the country in Ekurhuleni‚ east of Johannesburg.