Cape Town - The ANC in the Western Cape is unfazed by its former president Jacob Zuma’s announcement that he is endorsing uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK Party) for the upcoming general elections.
Zuma made an announcement at the weekend at Ipeleng Community Centre in Soweto that he is pledging his support for the MK Party and that he won't be voting for the ANC next year.
Zuma said the ANC is no longer the organisation that he joined 64 years ago, defying President Cyril Ramaphosa’s leadership. However, he said he is not leaving the ANC.
Muhammad Khalid Sayed, ANC provincial spokesperson, said the party notes with deep disappointment the pledging of support by Zuma for another political party.
“We feel that this is a move that has not been well thought out. You cannot remain a member of the ANC while at the same time campaigning for another party.
“This is the mobilisation of the ANC and we don’t take kindly to it,” said Sayed.
“We are calling on all people who are driving this particular agenda not to use our former president, particularly his years now as an ANC veteran,” he said.
“As for the impact on the Western Cape we are not concerned and we don’t think voters in the province will fall for this political gimmick.”
Zuma made his announcement during the MK’s 62nd anniversary. The ANC in the Western Cape was meant to host an event in Gugulethu to mark the occasion at the weekend, however, it was cancelled.
Sayed said that Zuma’s announcement has nothing to do with the MK’s cancellation of the event.
He said the event was cancelled due to logistical issues.
Gaontebale Nodoba, academic and political analyst at the University of Cape Town (UCT), said since the national conference of the ANC that re-elected Ramaphosa as ANC president, there has been voices of disgruntlement within the party on a number of issues both inside the party and also how as the (mis) ruling party it (mis)runs the affairs of the state.
“The MK Party was seen to be a party by disgruntled MK soldiers. Little did the ruling party know that former president Zuma is the brains behind it, at least that is my assumption.
“Joining the EFF by Carl Niehaus was another decoy by the RET faction that the media and ruling party fell for. Remember the tea the EFF leadership had with former president Zuma?”
He said: “Zuma is, through the strategy of his faction, daring the (mis) ruling ANC to either expel him or suspend him. Something the ANC frankly cannot afford to do given its limping political state.
“With an SG who seems to be ever ready to spew bile at the slightest provocation, it is no wonder the ANC has so far not as yet commented on former president Zuma’s announcement.”
Nodoba said that the coming weeks were going to be an interesting period for the ANC.
“My prediction being that the ANC will do a toenadering with former president Zuma and his MK Party and the RET forces in general.
“All these talks will happen behind closed doors. Since its exile days the ANC is known to deal with internal contradictions that threaten its existence in a manner that allows it to continue fooling its detractors, and in this epoch of a bourgeois democracy to fool the voting masses.
“The ANC is good at pretending to be united, meanwhile they are not.
“The two songs which show that the ANC is built on cultism and factionalism and will ring through for the coming weeks are, Ramaphosa re tsamaya le ena. Re mo rata kaofela (Ramaphosa we are going with this one. We all love him) and Wenzeni uZuma?’ (What has Zuma done?)”
