Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

Ex-rivals in fight for better pension, writes Janet Smith

Old soldiers of the country’s many proud armies unite for the first time this weekend. And the launch of the South African National Military Veterans’ Association (SANMVA) is potent in symbolism as the country’s political centre threatens not to hold.

As the ANC’s Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans’ Association (MKMVA); the Council for Military Veterans’ Organisations (CMVO); the PAC’s military wing, the Azanian People’s Liberation Army (Apla); the Azanian National Liberation Army (Azanla); and the once-repressive Uncle Tom armies of the former TBVC (Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda and Ciskei) states gather at the Booysens Hotel in Joburg for a two-day conference to establish the association, they will be building on a sophisticated military tradition that includes Shaka’s fearless impis and the Boer commandos of the 1800s.

It is those memories of sheer guts that have helped to drive the formation of a body that, at last, intends to compel the government to take care of former soldiers and their families, irrespective of the uniform they wore or the side they were on.

While the ANC battles significant internal strife and the country holds its breath following Thabo Mbeki’s departure, the unity between veterans shows again how progressive forces in this country are able to overcome past iniquity.

Military historians will see the SANMVA as the logical conclusion of the fraught negotiations that led to the formation of the SA National Defence Force in 1994. At that time, about 12 000 former MK cadres were integrated into the SANDF, with nearly 40 000 former SA Defence Force soldiers, 6 000 ex-TBVC soldiers and 5 000 former Apla cadres. There were nearly 10 000 new recruits by the new century. The philosophy now is that veterans must also be watchdogs for a military that will never divide soldier from soldier again.

As last-minute details in the agreements and constitution were being defended at meetings primarily between the representatives of the CMVO and MK this week, MKMVA chairperson Kebby Maphatsoe and the CMVO’s chair, Godfrey Giles, agreed that a shared belief in justice for veterans kept them on track.

MK has been a significant force for unity. Despite years of struggling to be taken seriously by its own party under Mbeki – who was never a champion of ex-combatants, not being one himself – the MKMVA persisted in reaching out to its former tormentors, the SADF, and the armies of the TBVC states.

In his office in Luthuli House this week, Maphatsoe spoke about how the relentless pursuit of “a negotiated settlement” meant that there could be no revenge between former enemies.

“We had a situation where there were all these heavily trained former soldiers who were not being cared for, who could destabilise the country. We wanted to give them all a different way to deal with their problems, and to share their legacy. Although these terrible things had happened in the past, we wanted to see if we could share the same sentiments, and reach a common settlement.”

Disbanded in 1993 after suspending its armed struggle when the exiles returned home after the unbanning of the party in 1990, MK looked for examples from outside on how to achieve a common purpose with its former enemies, because the South African military situation was unique.

“We were not fighting the colonisers, like in Algeria or Angola or Mozambique,” Maphatsoe explained. “We were each fighting our own people, who were also South Africans like us. So there was no question of this or that party being expelled, leaving behind the one and not the other. We had to find a way forward together.”

There is no escaping the ironies, however. For 20 years, through the 1970s and 80s, MK was the target of an SADF that attacked it everywhere it could. MK would later retaliate with bombs of its own. Giles said this week that the CMVO agreed that the time had come to look beyond the painful histories.

“In fact, now we rather look at the fact that the memories of ordinary people are very short. When there are issues in the country – such as the recent xenophobia or the public servants’ strike – they cry out for the military. But sometimes they forget very quickly what soldiers do for peace.

“Think about the World War II. Veterans put their lives at risk, stopped their businesses and their education, went away from their families, and what do they get today? Twenty rands on top of the normal pension. So instead of getting R900 a month, they get R920. And to think they came back from the war as heroes.”