• Former Chief of Defence Intelligence General Maomela “Mojo” Motau and others formed a new political party.
• They say Africa Africans Reclaim (AAR) would “demolish rather than transform” colonialism and apartheid.
• AAR’s founding manifesto says the ANC has lost touch with reality, and SA is slipping into a failed state.
• The party is expected to be officially launched on October 7

Retired South African army generals have established a political party to contest the 2024 general elections, slamming the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and warning that South Africa was “slipping into a failed state”. 

The military veterans, including former Chief of Defence Intelligence General Maomela “Mojo” Motau, are set to launch their new political home, Africa Africans Reclaim (AAR), on October 7 to “demolish rather than transform” colonialism and apartheid.

In a document released before the party’s launch, the founding members denounced the national conference that re-elected President Cyril Ramaphosa in December 2022 as a “sham conference” that would do little to rescue the “limping” ANC. 

According to Motau, AAR is about demolishing rather than transforming colonialism and apartheid.

“It is about fundamental change, not trivialities such as lowering pass marks, building the same type of school for Africans with no facilities, misplacing emphasis on the so-called township economies, and therefore buying into the so-called two economies in one country. We are, therefore, ready to hold the bull by its horns. We are prepared to attack the foundation of colonialism,” Motau said.

“The ANC sham conference of December 2022 contributed to the woes of the ANC. The conference failed to discuss critical issues facing the movement and had to adopt some policies in some sort of gathering on Zoom. The leadership elected at NASREC in Gauteng did not demonstrate the seriousness of the ANC into the future. Nothing serious seemed to inform the process of electing such leaders.”

The former military generals accused the ANC, their former political home, of losing touch with reality and failing to uproot colonialism and apartheid. 

“We are now facing elections in 2024. We have a limping ANC already conceding that it is not going to receive a majority in the elections. It is now looking for coalition partners next year. Shockingly, its preferred partner is the DA. This, it claims, is the maturation of democracy.”

AAR is the latest ANC breakaway party since 1994. This includes the Congress of the People (Cope), led by former ANC Chairman Mosioua Lekota, Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), the African Congress for Transformation (ACT), led by former party secretary general Ace Magashule, and the African Radical Economic Transformation Alliance (ARETA), led by former ANC national spokesperson Carl Niehaus. 

AAR’s formation comes seven years after Motau and other retired army officers released a “revolutionary” document, labelled a “coup dossier” by Ramaphosa’s supporters, aimed at forcing Ramaphosa and the entire ANC national executive committee (NEC) to vacate office before the 2022 Nasrec conference.

At the time, Motau and his fellow comrades had followed up with nationwide consultative meetings known as “Cadre Summits”. 

Motau said they had no choice but to form AAR because the situation was “obviously unbearable”. 

“Our people, the African people, in particular, still languished in abject poverty. They were left without any hope. Colonialism and apartheid, which they struggled against for centuries, were still in place. The ANC failed to dismantle colonialism and apartheid. We are under a neocolonial dictatorship. 

“We could therefore not leave our people in limbo. It is demanded of us to offer a new leading organization that arouses the spirit and confidence that they are liberating themselves. Africa Africans Reclaim (AAR) was born. We undertake to bring about change without procrastination,” Motau said.

According to Motau, one of the founding members, it took him and other former military top brass seven years to create their own political party after unsuccessful consultative efforts to “return the ANC to its fundamental values”.

“In 2017, we engaged Comrades Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma, and Kgalema Motlanthe. Meetings were held individually with the senior comrades, highlighting the ominous situation facing the ANC and, indeed, our country. Sadly, the project collapsed. We continued to engage leaders of the ANC, trying to sensitize them about the situation.

“In 2020, we decided to take a somewhat formal approach. It was September that year when we approached the ANC officials. The meetings resulted in the calling of what we called the ‘ANC Cadre Summit.’ The calling of the summit was opposed by the leadership, prompting some to call it an attempt at a military coup,” said Motau.

Recognizing that their warnings had gone unheeded, the retired generals decided to form AAR. 

“The situation of the ANC continued to deteriorate, and our country was slipping into a failed state. In 2021, the ANC, as expected from our analysis, lost almost all Metro Municipalities in the local government polls. It was becoming very clear that the ANC had We should hasten to say that the ANC leadership failed to heed our warnings and advice. lost touch with reality. Our people were turning their backs against the ANC,” maintained Motau. 

According to AAR’s founding manifesto, the party would address “colonial anchor elements” such as land ownership, national identity, sovereignty, citizenship, the legal system, the economy and the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), by doing the following: 

• Implement a mixed economic system with the state playing a central role rather than keep South Africa as a “vassal state serving the interests of Europe;

• Nationalise all land except private property in urban areas controlled by municipalities and rural areas under traditional leaders;

• Ensure the government appoints all SARB governing structures excluding foreigners;  

• Abolish dual citizenship; 

• Ban the employment of foreigners by the state and private sector; 

• Change the country’s national identity to Africans, Europeans and Asians; 

• Pursue an independent foreign policy that serves the interests of South Africans while taking into account the country’s history; 

• Impose a legal system in which the courts apply rather than make the laws;

• Introduce a single education system and examination board; 

• Implement a national service to alleviate youth unemployment;  

• Restore full operation to the country’s coal-fired power plants; 

• Lower taxes on the poor to narrow the income and wealth disparities in the country.