MK Vets’ illegal hotel occupation – political controversy and threats to democracy

South Africa is facing Zimbabwean-style property occupations as MKMVA (Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association) members illegally occupied municipal housing projects in Msunduzi, Ray Nykonyeni in Margate and the Aloe Ridge rental housing complex in Pietermaritzburg. This is ostensibly being justified under the guise that government failed to provide the housing it promised. Most controversial is the fact that some of these “veterans” were not even born when real veterans returned from exile in 1994. To aggravate matters, 39 of the individuals who occupied the 950-unit Aloe Ridge were not registered on the Department of Military Veterans’ database.