So Many Questions on Kebby Maphatsoe's vow to protect Zuma

Kebby Maphatsoe, the deputy minister of defence and chairman of the MK Military Veterans’ Association, has vowed that the organisation will protect President Jacob Zuma. Chris Barron asked him...

Protect him from what?

There are foreign forces who want to remove the ANC from power. But their main target is to start with President Jacob Zuma.

Do you have any evidence?

We know that the regime change forces in South Africa are supported by foreign forces.

Isn't this for our intelligence services or, in the event of an overt threat, your own Department of Defence to deal with?

When I talk about forces I'm just using my military language as a soldier. They're not using any military equipment. We're talking about propaganda here.

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Is the MKMVA equipped to fight a propaganda war?

We have very, very skilled commissars of Umkhonto weSizwe who were in the department of propaganda in exile. Through our propaganda that we gave our people they were able to rise up and face the apartheid regime and were prepared to lay down their lives.

Is this kind of thing applicable in a constitutional democracy?

What we have now is a battle of propaganda. Propaganda has been compiled in a way to deal with President Zuma, discredit him, tell lies about him continuously.

Isn't this for our intelligence services to deal with, if at all?

These people are not using your professional espionage. They're using things like funding opposition parties, funding the media that is opposed to the ANC ...

I ask again, do you have any evidence?

As MK we were taught to read between the lines.

Do you have any evidence that foreign forces are trying to overthrow the president?

You don't have to look for the evidence, it is public. When the president reshuffled ...

Is this your evidence? The intelligence report saying that Pravin Gordhan was plotting to overthrow the government?

I've never seen any report. What I'm saying is that the actions of those people from outside who fund these NGOs which are taking the president to court every week ...

What are you going to do about it?

We are going to intensify interaction with our masses on the ground that they must not believe in this propaganda.

The same masses calling for Zuma to go?

They are being misled. They think the propaganda is true. It is our duty as the MKMVA to explain to them that they mustn't believe what they see in the newspapers or on TV.

Will they listen to you?

Yes, they're ready to listen.

So why didn't they listen to the president at the Workers' Day rally?

That was a planned thing, that's why. It was not the workers from the Free State. They were bused in.

The president says what they did is part of democracy. Don't you agree?

Yes. But when you speak to them one by one they will tell you they were told by so-and-so to boo the president.

So what are your MK veterans going to speak to them about?

About how to defend the gains of our revolution that we fought so hard to achieve.

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How are you going to defend the gains of the revolution?

The only weapon we have is political education of our masses. If they understand why they should rise up and fight against this regime change agenda ...

You're going to incite them to violence?

No.

What do you mean by rising up?

Rising up is to stand up and say: "We know you have been telling lies about the ANC. Come 2019 we will vote for the ANC."

How can you as deputy minister of defence be leading a private army?

This is not a private army.

So what do you mean when you talk about the MKMVA deploying "combat-ready soldiers"?

We have never used military weapons. This is just the language that we are used to as old soldiers.

Aren't some of your members too young to have been combat-ready soldiers in the struggle?

No. MK was disbanded in 1993. These are the younger generation of MK soldiers.

Who finances the MKMVA?

The Department of Military Veterans has a budget that assists military veterans.

Should an organisation funded by taxpayers be campaigning for the ANC?

We are military veterans and it is in the Military Veterans Act that we should receive money for our meetings and conferences.

Do you receive money from the Guptas?

When they come to us and say "There's a business opportunity, can you come as MK and benefit out of that?", we will not run away.