The Big Read: Kebby is poisoning MK

I know of a cook, an Umkhonto weSizwe cook. He skipped to exile via Swaziland around 1982 and joined the ANC's military wing with the express objective of returning to South Africa as a guerrilla to fight for freedom.

His military training took him to a number of countries, most of them in the then Soviet bloc. In countries such as Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia he received specialised training in politics, the use of firearms and artillery weapons as well as intelligence gathering.

When he returned to the MK camps in Angola, he was easily one of the ANC's most highly decorated soldiers. He was itching to be deployed back home on a military operation.

But it was not to be. His commanders at the time refused him permission to go, saying he was too hot-headed.

So they made him a cook, a camp cook.

Like many others who had eagerly left South Africa before him, with the hope of returning home to wage the armed struggle only to be stuck in the camps, he was deeply disappointed.

That he would not be going home soon was heartbreaking, but that he would be deployed to cook food for other guerrillas felt like an insult.

The camp commanders argued that only the most trusted could work in the camp's kitchen, and he was one of those.

A few years earlier there had been a major scare in the Angolan camps after apparent apartheid security agents put poison in the camp pots while food was being cooked. Apparently the intention was to kill the entire camp, but the amount of poison poured was too little for the huge camp pots.

It did little more than cause soldiers to suffer from severe diarrhoea.

Much later, long after he had accepted his fate, our cook was granted his wish and was sent home on a number of missions.

Those in the know say they were highly successful and he managed to slip back into exile without being caught, a rare feat for an MK soldier at the time.

Today the former cook is one of the most senior managers in the South African Police Service.

I also know a story about four frustrated MK soldiers who left their camp in Fazenda, Angola, without permission. It was 1980 and the four men, some of whom had arrived in exile soon after the 1976 Soweto uprisings, were unhappy over the fact that they were being kept in Angola when all they wanted was to return home to fight. It is said they walked and hiked for 200km to reach the ANC's Angolan headquarters in Luanda.

By the time they got to the Angolan capital, a message had arrived at the HQ that four ill-disciplined bandits were on their way to cause trouble. When they arrived at the offices, they were surrounded by the ANC's security department and the Angolan army. The quartet was summarily sent to the notorious Quatro, where they were jailed and treated as enemy agents.

The ANC's erstwhile military wing has been in the news recently, largely because of Deputy Defence Minister Kebby Maphatsoe's now famous foot-in-mouth tendencies.

Maphatsoe, also chairman of the MK Military Veterans' Association, has drawn much attention to himself and his history due to the insults he has been dishing out at perceived enemies of President Jacob Zuma, most notably Public Protector Thuli Madonsela.

He has become an object of ridicule, deservedly. But I contend that this should not be for the fact that he was, like the MK operative I mention above, a cook in exile.

It should also not be for the fact that in 1991, during a very tough period in Uganda when soldiers often went without food, he absconded.

Lest we forget, the ANC's unbanning in 1990 resulted in almost all of its leaders rushing back home. That left scores of MK recruits fending for themselves in the camps.

With the Soviet Union having collapsed and the friendly Scandinavian countries rechanneling the tap of benevolence from the camps to those back in the country negotiating peace, the situation became dire in the camps.

Legend has it that some MK cadres were forced to hunt for snakes and wild animals for meals.

What Maphatsoe should be ridiculed for is his shameless sycophancy.

The problem with the MK Military Veterans' Association is that it has allowed itself to be used by people such as Maphatsoe as the president's "private army".

It was initially set up to look after the welfare of former MK guerrillas, many of whom returned home without a cent. A month hardly passes without a former guerrilla being buried a pauper.

Instead of looking to improve the lives of those who sacrificed their youth in the service of the ruling party, it has allowed itself to be used as a self-enrichment scheme for some of its leaders, who use the organisation to score economic empowerment deals and secure political posts in government.