The protesters handed over a memorandum to ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe despite attempts by members of the MKMVA to prevent this happening.
The protesters called for‚ among other demands‚ the immediate resignations of ANC president Jacob Zuma and the party’s national executive committee.
“We are not a militia. One of our aims is to play an important role in the life of the ANC‚ but one of our resolutions that we took in 2012…was to make sure that at all times we defend (the) ANC and we will continue doing that until (a) conference changes that resolution‚” Maphatsoe told SAfm’s #ForumAt8 on Thursday morning.
- ANC leaders head off 'bloodbath'Sustained intimidation and late- night appeals from party bosses stopped disgruntled ANC members from trying to shut down Luthuli House, the party's national head office, in the Johannesburg CBD, yesterday.
Maphatsoe‚ who is also deputy minister of defence and military veterans‚ denied that his members acted in a heavy-handed manner.
“They did not touch even a single member of #OccupyLuthuliHouse. There was command and control‚” Maphatsoe said.
“With the journalists there was miscommunication‚ and I said during the week that we apologise for what happened on Monday to our journalists‚ it should not have happened.”
He also denied that MKMVA prevented Mantashe from accepting the memorandum.
“I was there. I am the one who picked (up Mantashe) from the office and the comrades were doing a guard of honour. There was never a point where MKMVA tried to stop (Mantashe) from accepting the memorandum.”
When asked whether the MKMVA was in support of a particular faction of the ANC‚ Maphatsoe said his members did not act against any member of the party.
“The message that was issued by #OccupyLuthulihouse prompted us to take a resolution that we cannot allow our movement and our offices and the leadership of the ANC and the staff not to function properly‚ do their day-to-day work‚ because of ill-disciplined people who are not following the procedures and processes of the ANC‚” he said.
Maphatsoe said disciplined members of the ANC knew that if they wanted to raise any issue with the party‚ the procedure was for them to go to the region or province level to do so.
“We would have understood if they have marched to the provincial office of the ANC and said: ‘Look we have got views we want you to take our views to the leadership of the African National Congress‚’ but not to use threats like you want to occupy‚” Maphatsoe said.
Maphatsose said the ANC in Gauteng‚ where the marchers came from‚ distanced itself from “those people”.
“It is not a factional matter. It is just an ill-discipline issue.”
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