The MK Party has usurped the soul of the ANC, and it is so disturbingly different from any splinter party that came out of the ANC, former Robben Islander prisoner Pat Matosa said on Sunday.
Matosa said MK Party’s claim that its cause was an unbroken continuation of the just wars of resistance and the struggle against apartheid and their issue of embracing the present indigenous kings and queens was a physical depiction of the continuous unbroken anti colonial and anti-apartheid Struggle for freedom.
“The link between the MKP and the real Umkhonto weSizwe is presented as this continuous unbroken anti-colonial and anti-apartheid Struggle. The MKP is depicted and given the historical role of the true and real Umkhonto weSizwe.
“As matters stand now, there is no robust and rebuttal argument against this. This version of the narrative is presented in public meetings and rallies,” Matosa added.
He further said the choice of party to name its highest structure as the high command, completed the picture that was continuously being created that MK Party has indeed took the soul of the ANC.
“This organisation has and is taking the soul of the ANC. The heroes and heroines of the Struggle who are no longer alive, are presented as associate leaders of the MKP.
“This line of doing, thinking and presentation is continuing with the continuous and unbroken historic anti colonial and anti apartheid struggle narrative. Courts will have a limited impact on this.
“When the masses of the people hear the revolutionary songs, chants and slogans being made and see itoyitoyi, they join before they ask who is singing these songs. This is a different battle which in nature is more spiritual than being physical.”
Matosa continued to say that the MK Party has taken itoyitoyi and claim to jointly own it with what they referred to as “Ramaphosa’s ANC”.
However, political analyst Moeletsi Mbeki held a different view, saying he was sceptical of the breakaway parties from the ANC, none of whom had not really made significant gains.
“Congress Of The People (Cope) fizzled out, EFF is still be holding, the old UDM is not doing that well.
“MK Party got 14% or so in the last election. Yes they were only a few months old so I’m one of the sceptics about breakaway parties from the ANC and the party itself is declining so I don’t expect that the breakaway parties will grow while the mother-body is falling apart. So I’m sceptical,” Mbeki said.
On the question of whether he believed the MK Party can survive without former president Jacob Zuma, Mbeki said all these “small parties” were more centred on individuals, saying that the ANC was the real institution that had survived for over hundred years.
“The ANC is an Institution even though it is a declining institution and there are many reasons for this. The 2024 election seems to have be led by individual rather than institutional structures.
Rise Mzansi is more about the leader and MK Party again is more about the leader, ActionSA is about the leader, so there seems to be a trend in South Africa that many if the new parties are not institutions;hey are more like personality projects driven by personalities.”
The Star