MK veterans in South Africa back Khusta Jack in dispute with Mayor Lobishe
In the South African city of Gqeberha, anti-apartheid activist and founder of the Abantu Integrity Movement Mxolisi “Khusta” Jack said he intends to approach the High Court. He believes that statements by Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality Mayor Babalwa Lobishe falsely linked him to the disappearances and imprisonment of comrades during the freedom struggle.
As Daily Maverick reports, Lobishe spoke on August 27 at a council meeting, responding to its members, including Jack, who commented on her opening speech. She questioned the truthfulness of his accounts of events in 1976 and 1984 and said that she now understood why many comrades had disappeared and been imprisoned in the past.
Demand to retract the statements
Jack’s lawyer, Neville Gavula, sent Lobishe a letter on September 4, describing her statements as false and defamatory. According to the lawyer, they create the impression that Jack was responsible for the arrests, imprisonment or disappearances of people during apartheid, and also call into question his integrity and reputation.
Jack said that Lobishe did not respond to the demand to retract her words within the stipulated period. According to him, the letter was also delivered to her office through a sheriff to confirm its receipt. Jack said that in the event of court proceedings, Lobishe would have to name the people who died and prove the connection between their deaths and him.
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Veterans’ position
Members of the African National Congress-affiliated uMkhonto weSizwe Veterans’ League, who say they worked with Jack in the 1980s, spoke in his defense. The head of the organization’s regional branch, Mzukisi Mpahlwa, said that he and Jack were arrested together in St Albans and that he had never heard suspicions of the activist’s involvement in the disappearance of comrades.
At the same time, Mpahlwa noted that Lobishe has the right to make such statements if she has evidence, and Jack has the right to demand it. Another member of the organization, Mlamli Tsozi, said that he did not know the full context of the mayor’s statements, but was convinced that Jack had not cooperated with the apartheid system and had fought against it.
The dispute is taking place amid tensions between Jack and Lobishe. In May, Jack left the mayoral committee, saying he was disappointed with the state of governance under Lobishe’s leadership. She responded that Jack had failed in his duties to residents and that she would have dismissed him had he not resigned.
