The MK Party calls President Ramaphosa’s Ndwedwe TRC housing announcement a politically timed stunt, criticising the ANC for decades of inaction while millions remain without land, homes, and dignity.
Image: GCIS
The uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK Party) says President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement in Ndwedwe regarding TRC housing reparations is a politically timed gesture rather than genuine assistance.
IOL previously reported that nearly 30 years after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings, 220 verified victims in Ndwedwe are set to receive state housing assistance, including once-off housing grants or new homes.
Symbolic cheques representing R40 million were handed over, with 114 beneficiaries already receiving around R21 million through the President’s Fund.
Ndwedwe was among the areas hardest hit by political violence during the late 1980s and early 1990s, with homes burned, property destroyed, and families displaced.
MK Party spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela said, “While any assistance to apartheid victims is long overdue, this event is a classic ANC election stunt, timed deliberately ahead of the 2026 local government elections in a province the ANC has failed and destabilised.”
“For 32 years, the ANC has dragged its feet on implementing the TRC recommendations.
''Victims grew old and died waiting. Now, suddenly, in April 2026, Ramaphosa arrives in Ndwedwe with symbolic cheques and big speeches about reconciliation,'' he said.
This, he said, was not genuine remorse or commitment; it was damage control and vote-seeking in KwaZulu-Natal.
''R40 million for 220 beneficiaries in one area is mere tokenism,'' said Ndhlela.
“While a small number of verified victims receive assistance, millions of our people, the children and grandchildren of those who suffered, continue to live in shacks, without proper houses, without land, and without dignity.
''The ANC has completely failed on housing delivery, land reform, and broad reparations. Ndwedwe suffered heavily during the apartheid-era violence and the painful conflicts of the late 1980s and early 1990s,'' said Ndhlela.
Ndhlela said that pain is real and must be acknowledged.'' But true justice is not delivered through small grants handed out for political theatre.''
Real reparations require: radical expropriation of land without compensation to restore what was stolen from our people; a massive, properly administered reparations programme that benefits entire communities, not just a selected few; serious action on the full TRC recommendations, including accountability for those who committed gross violations; an end to the corruption and looting that has robbed South Africans of the resources needed for real restitution, he said.
Ndhlela further criticised the ANC, saying, “Ramaphosa speaks about ‘human dignity’ and the Constitution while his government presides over collapsing infrastructure, high unemployment, and persistent poverty in the very communities that sacrificed the most.
He noted that the ANC had more than three decades to do the right thing.
''Instead, they chose elite enrichment and cadre deployment over the people.
''The people of Ndwedwe and all of South Africa deserve more than late, half-hearted gestures from a dying ANC,'' said Ndhlela.
“The MK Party remains committed to genuine economic freedom, total land restoration, and real justice for the victims of apartheid and the failures of the post-1994 dispensation.”
hope.ntanzi@iol.co.za
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