MKMVA CONDEMNS THE RACIST OPPOSITION OF SOLIDARITY TRADE UNION TO THE WELL DESERVED PROMOTION OF OUR MEMBERS IN SAPS, AND WARNS THAT THEIR CONDUCT WILL NO LONGER BE TOLERATED
Date: Saturday, 10 November 2018
The Solidarity Trade Union (Solidarity) has once again proved itself to be a reactionary and racist organization, that hankers back to apartheid and the years of white domination in the workplace where job reservation was the norm and senior positions were reserved for white people, simply because of the color of their skin without consideration for qualifications, service records and ability.
Solidarity’s blatant attacks on former Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) combatants, who are members of MKMVA, and who are employed in the South African Police Service (SAPS), in order to try and prevent them from being promoted to senior ranks must be understood in the context of their persistent racist, and white supremacist, attitudes.
It is disturbing to note how Solidarity abuses social media platforms to spread malicious lies against former liberation fighters who are employed in SAPS. Their mobilization against former non-statutory forces inside the structures of SAPS has been relentless, and is intended to cause increased internal racial tension among members of SAPS, and to undermine its efficient functioning.
It is furthermore disturbing to note how mainstream media houses such News24 allow themselves to be used and abused by Solidarity, and report their racist drivel without any attempt at fair and critical analytical reporting. The front page report in the Afrikaans newspaper Rapport last Sunday (4 November 2018) under the emotive headline: “Dit reën range by SAPS” (It rains ranks at SAPS), was an example of Solidarity’s racist propaganda being published without any attempt to do fair reporting and to investigate what the truth is.
It is painful, and angers MKMVA, that liberation fighters who have dedicated their lives to the liberation of our people, and made huge personal sacrifices, are now being denigrated and called all kinds of racist names. We have not forgotten that many of the members of Solidarity were the benefactors of apartheid, and defended apartheid to the such an extent that they actually served in the security forces of the old apartheid regime. As such they brutally oppressed, tortured and killed black South Africans (especially Africans), while systematically enforcing apartheid.
Their hands are still dripping with the blood of our people, yet they see it fit to arrogantly to spread outrageous lies that some of our members were “still in their nappies” during the armed struggle for liberation. These blatant lies are spread while it is on record that many our members were incarcerated in apartheid prisons as political prisoners, and some were actually on death row.
In contrast to the heroic sacrifices that our members made for the liberation of our people, many Solidarity members were actually members of the notorious security police branch; they were the ones who arrested and tortured our members, and who imprisoned them. All these heinous crimes they committed in the name of defending racism and apartheid, but now they want to arrogantly pass judgement on us! We will never tolerate such insensitive and arrogant behavior!
The members of MKMVA who are due for rank promotion in SAPS are highly deserving and patriotic South Africans who have proved their commitment to a non-racial and democratic society. As former members of MK and liberation fighters they have proved their preparedness to selflessly serve their people, and we have no doubt that they will continue to serve our country and make a critical contribution in the fight against crime. They have also proved themselves to be committed to work for national reconciliation, and to heal the deep wounds of the past by inflicted by apartheid brutality and numerous atrocities. Many of which members of Solidarity were directly responsible for.
We call on Solidarity to immediately cease their resistance to the fundamental transformation of SAPS into a truly integrated national police force that will reflect the demographic realities of our country, and give due recognition to our members as patriotic black South Africans who have shown their mettle and commitment to our people through their years of heroic service as liberation fighters in the struggle against apartheid.
MKMVA warns Solidarity not to mistakenly see our members disciplined commitment to trying to build a united SAPS, and trying to heal our nation from our racist and deeply traumatic history, as weakness. We will not tolerate their hankering back to apartheid, and their racist propaganda attacks, any longer. While our members will remain disciplined and committed to the South African Constitution that we have fought so hard for, we will none the less take Solidarity, and the likes of them, head-on.
Solidarity must understand that they will never be allowed to succeed with their backward, and racist, ideas. Those ideas will ultimately be consigned to the trash can of history where they belong, and the members of MKMVA will make sure that this is achieved sooner rather than later.
As the formal military veterans Association for former MK combatants, MKMVA stands firmly behind our members and fully support them in their continuing struggle for recognition and justice in SAPS. This is the only way that SAPS can be transformed into a fully representative and effective crime fighting organization that will truly serve all the people of our beloved country.
Statement issued by Carl Niehaus, MKMVA NEC Member, and National Spokesperson, 10 November 2018
