Former South African president Jacob Zuma and his uMkhonto weSizwe Party has dismissed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Government of National Unity (GNU) as “meaningless” and “nonsense”, saying the ANC and DA arrangement amounts to an apartheid deal.
In a long, vituperative and scathing statement, coupled with remarks during a media briefing in Johannesburg yesterday, Zuma and his spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndlela claimed the GNU harks back to 1948 to reinvent apartheid under hardcore leaders
making Ramaphosa and the ANC “sellouts” and “puppets” of white monopoly capital.
Zuma and his party also attacked state institutions, particularly the Independent Electoral Commission, the judiciary (the courts and judges) and even SABC where three threatened to march over “Regarding the current political situation, we need to educate our people that there is no Government of National Unity in South Africa,” the MK said.
“There is a white-led unholy alliance between the DA and the ANC of Ramaphosa. It is sponsored by big business. It is for the benefit of the markets, not the people. It must be crushed before it finds its feet.”
Zuma also continued to dispute the election results, saying he as to challenge the outcome in and out of South Africa as they have found that there are njne million votes unaccounted for.
While doing that, Zuma said his party will now start attending parliament after they boycotted the official opening as they are contesting the outcome.
In the process, Zuma and his party continued their hostile narrative against the courts and judges are appealing to help them in their electoral petition.
Besides, Zuma says he will form a “progressive caucus” with like-minded parties in the National Assembly to fight the ruling coalition or GNU which he wants to collapse.
Outside parliament, Zuma said they will form a Patriotic Front to battle the ANC-DA-IFP alliance on power with smaller parties.
MK said: Together with the progressive caucus and the people, we must fight the sellout deal of the DA and their puppet Ramaphosa by any means necessary and within the law.”
Zuma and Ramaphosa have a long history of political rivalry, dating back to 1991 at during the ANC’s first conference after its unbanning in Durban.
Ramaphosa beat Zuma for the position of secretary-general by a wide margin, much to the shock of ANC heavyweights, but after a period hibernation they worked together in 2012.
In 2017, their rivalry erupted again over succession and leadership.
Zuma wanted his former wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to succeed him, but she lost to Ramaphosa.
After that in 2018, Ramaphosa forced out Zuma from the presidency before his term ended, further toxifying their relationship.
Zuma is very bitter about that.
Come 2022, at another ANC conference, Zuma’s faction is defeated again at Nasrec where they had been routed five years before.
In the 2024 general elections, Zuma got his revenge when he sabotaged Ramaphosa’s ANC to plunge from 57% to 40%, forcing it to share power.
Ramaphosa is rattled about that, but remains in charge.
Zuma is now fighting to disrupt the GNU, but with Ramaphosa determined to avoid destroying the ANC and leaving it capable of bouncing back, the battle can only intensify in the next five years until a solution is found.
The big question is: Will the ANC survive this damaging battering and fragmentation due to factionalism, internal strife and personal rivalries?
Newshawks
