MK Party President Jacob Zuma was in Mamelodi on Sunday to commemorate the death of Solomon Mahlangu and to also celebrate Freedom Day.
The occasion was called Solomon Mahlangu Lecture and was held at the Solomon Mahlangu Square in Mamelodi West.
Mahlangu was an Umkhonto WeSizwe military operative and member of the ANC.
He was hanged at the Pretoria Central Prison, now Kgosi Mampuru Correctional Centre, on 6 April 1979 at a relatively young age of 23.
During the lecture Zuma told the crowd about his own trials and tribulations in exile and also about the events that eventually led to him forming the MK Party.
Zuma told MK Party members that Solomon Mahlangu was a brave and wise soldier who knew why he had joined the ANC and its military wing Umkhonto WeSizwe.
“Solomon Mahlangu was an Umkhonto WeSizwe soldier who fought for the freedom that we are supposed to enjoy today, but we are unable to enjoy this freedom because we are not free as the current government treats us like that of the apartheid era,” said Zuma.
He compared Mahlangu to the likes of the late former President and statesman Nelson Mandela in stature.
He appealed to Mahlangu to intervene from the grave and help black people solve the political problems that they are faced with presently.
Zuma insisted that as long as black people don’t have land in their hands then they are not free.
“We want our land back because it belongs to us as blacks and the whites took it from us by force,” he said.
Zuma reiterated the matter of the MK votes which were allegedly stolen from MK Party and handed to the Democratic Alliance.
He urged his supporters to continue seeking answers regarding the matter.
Solomon Mahlangu’s niece Portia Mahlangu-Mthombeni pledged her allegiance to MK Party and assured the crowd that she is a member of the MK Party in good standing.
An MK Party youth leader told the crowd that his organisation has started a campaign called “Where is my vote?” to prosecute the matter of the votes which were allegedly stolen in the 29 May 2024 general elections.
He insisted that the MK Party actually won two-thirds of the votes during the said general elections last year.
The youth leader urged his young comrades to fight for the stolen votes, otherwise the relevant authorities in government will always take them for granted as an organisation.
Speaking to Tshwane Talks after Zuma had delivered the lecture, MK Party Gauteng Provincial Spokesperson Abel Tau told Tshwane Talks that the reason for Zuma’s lecture and visit to the Mahlangu family was that the late Solomon Mahlangu was a trainee and acolyte of Jacob Zuma who was head of the ANC’s intelligence unit when the organisation was in exile.
“President Zuma never forgets his soldiers and during the lecture he oriented MK Party supporters about the history of the ANC’s struggle against apartheid,” said Tau.
“This freedom was fought for by many men and women who were prepared to lay down their lives for the liberation of South Africa,” explained Tau.
According to Tau, Zuma will forever remain a member of the ANC, but will never vote for it.
“The MK Party has been formed to save the ANC from itself or from those who have hijacked it (ANC) from inside and turned it into a party that is prepared to sacrifice black people for the benefit of white people,” he lamented.