Former president Jacob Zuma is at the heart of the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party’s campaign to oust the ANC and without him the breakaway party is unlikely to make a significant impact in the upcoming elections, says MK national organiser Nathi Nhleko.
The party is banking on the former president’s status as a former head of state and ANC leader, as well as voter dissatisfaction to galvanise voters to cast their ballots on May 29 in a bid to oust the governing party.
“Before December last year you had people who were completely disinterested and people who were not going to vote at all…. It is a factor that you had him as a former head of state, declaring that he was going to vote for MK. That really gave it impetus,” Nhleko said.
The MK party says it is aiming for a majority in the upcoming elections. However most credible polls have placed it as having a kingmaking position after the elections.
The latest election survey poll by global research firm Ipsos shows that the MK party has only halted advances of the EFF mainly in KwaZulu-Natal, with some former EFF supporters migrating to the new party.
According to the poll, the EFF could receive 11.5% of the vote, MK 8.4% and ANC support could fall to 40.2%, an untenable situation that could force the party to enter into a coalition with smaller parties.
The poll found the ANC is struggling to impress voters and its support base is concentrated in rural areas.
Nhleko, who is regarded as a Zuma ally and who held various cabinet positions during Zuma’s nearly decade-long presidency, , emerged from a political hiatus in March after resigning from the ANC.
During his tenure as minister in Zuma’s government, Nhleko is well known for mounting a spirited defence of the former president’s R250m state-sponsored security upgrades to his personal home in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal.
Promised violence
Apart from Zuma, Nhleko is the most high-profile individual with ANC links to publicly defect to MK. Other notable people who have joined MK include KwaZulu-Natal businessman Visven Reddy and former student activist turned politician Bongani Khanyile.
Khanyile and Reddy have promised violence in the country if Zuma was not allowed to participate in the upcoming provincial and national election.
Nhleko said the pair’s statements do not reflect the views of the organisation.
“We have never said that if MK does not win elections then this is what we will do… no one benefits from instability,” he said.
MK burst onto the political scene in December after Zuma, still an ANC member, announced his support for the party.
The ANC recently served Zuma, who now leads the MK party, with a notice to appear before a disciplinary hearing for contravening party rules. He was suspended in January after announcing his deflection to the MK. The hearing, which was postponed in May, will be held after the elections.
The MK party has recently been rocked by infighting leading to the expulsion of its founder, Jabulani Khumalo, and four other members, attributing it to “cleansing”. Khumalo has unsuccessfully in recent weeks attempted to remove Zuma as the leader of the party and the face of the party on the election ballot paper.
Nhleko has dismissed the infighting as “teething problems” and issues related to people who are “politically inexperienced”.
MK will hold its manifesto launch on Sunday in Gauteng where Zuma is expected to outline its policy proposals.
Its manifesto, quietly published on its website in April, includes proposals such as nationalising the country’s natural resources and the Reserve Bank, and repealing Eskom’s alternative energy agreements with independent power producers.
It also promises to introduce a basic income grant of R1,558, increase the child support grant to R760 (now at R530), and increase the old age pension and disability grant to R4,500 (now at R2,180).
The party’s economic tsar, Thanti Mthanti, who is also the director of the Development Finance Centre, UCT Graduate School of Business, said the manifesto was developed through a consultation process with professionals and religious groups from January.
The party would also overhaul the 1996 constitution, Mthanti said.
“The constitutional democracy limits the scope of executive action because everything has to be deemed constitutional by the courts … it’s allowed the court to play a role in policymaking,” he said.
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