Event: Jacob Zuma

Former president Jacob Zuma. (Photo by Gallo Images/Darren Stewart) uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party leader, Jacob Zuma, says he plans to engage ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa in a bid to end what he described as a growing dispute over the legacy of liberation struggle figures. Speaking on Monday at his party’s second anniversary commemoration of anti-apartheid activist Solomon Mahlangu in Mamelodi, Zuma accused the ANC of “gatekeeping” the history of those who fought for freedom, including members of uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), the ANC’s former armed wing. Zuma accused his former party of gatekeeping those who fought for the liberation of the country, including members of the ANC and uMkhonto weSizwe, the armed wing of the ANC. “I’ll be drinking tea with Ramaphosa to tell him that we can’t fight over things we shouldn’t be fighting about. We need to tell him that this was not done before — asking people where they were when we were fighting for freedom,” he said. Zuma, who led the ANC from 2007 to 2017, said his own role in the liberation struggle — including commanding Mahlangu — should entitle him to participate in commemorations, regardless of his expulsion from the party. “We trained this soldier, we worked with him, we sent him home to fight,” he said. “He fought and was captured by the Boers, then it is said that this is an ANC person.” He argued that those who were not part of MK’s military structures should not dictate who is allowed to honour struggle icons. “They cannot say, when they know we were soldiers,that we should not celebrate him. We trained him, gave him weapons, and then they say he is not ours.” Zuma also used the platform to criticise the current state of the ANC, saying it had failed to deliver full…