Six years after scandal-plagued former South African President Jacob Zuma was ousted from power, he is backing a new party against the African National Congress (ANC), his longtime political home, as part of the national elections on Wednesday.
Zuma’s political return as leader of uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), a party named after the former armed wing of the ANC, is significant as the ANC fights to retain its majority amid a decline of popularity. According to opinion polls, support for MK is between 8 and 14 percent nationally.
Although Zuma, 82, cannot legally run for parliament due to his prison sentence, MK’s emergence has upended the political landscape, demonstrating his enduring influence, particularly in his home province of origin, KwaZulu-Natal.
A veteran of the anti-apartheid struggle and a Zulu traditionalist, Zuma enjoys wide popularity, particularly in rural areas, due to his populist style and modest upbringing.
He rose through the ranks of the ANC to become South Africa’s vice president from 1999 to 2005, under former president Thabo Mbeki, but was removed from office when he was implicated in a corruption trial linked to a $2 billion arms deal.
Corruption charges against him have been repeatedly dropped and reinstated amid allegations of political interference, and the case is not expected to go to trial until next year.
Zuma’s nine years of presidency, starting in 2009, were marked by what South Africans call “state capture”, after an investigation exposed systemic corruption in which men of Well-connected businesses have plundered state resources.
When the ANC eventually pressured him to resign in 2018, Mr Zuma raged for an hour on state broadcaster to denounce the way he had been treated by the party he had served since his teenage years. , claiming his comrades had not followed proper party procedure.
South Africa experienced economic stagnation during Zuma’s presidency, which some critics call a period of national embarrassment and accuse him of ignoring the greater good of Nelson’s “rainbow nation.” Mandela.
Mr Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in prison in 2021 for failing to appear for a corruption investigation while in power, but he only served two months before being granted release conditional for medical reasons. More than 300 people were killed in the riots and looting that followed his arrest.
THE GREAT SURVIVOR
Commentators have written off Zuma’s political career on several occasions, but he has always proven them wrong, earning him the nickname “the great survivor”.
Shortly after he became president, it emerged that millions of dollars of public money had been spent improving Zuma’s vast property, including a swimming pool which a minister justified by saying it was used to combat fires.
Mr. Zuma resisted a vote of no confidence in parliament over the improvements and repaid more than $500,000 after unsuccessfully trying to plead his case to the Constitutional Court.
Among a litany of other scandals, Zuma was accused of raping a friend’s HIV-positive daughter. He denied the rape charge and was acquitted, but was ridiculed after saying he had showered after sex to reduce the risk of contracting HIV.
Ronnie Kasrils, a former intelligence minister who spent years in the ANC underground, said Zuma was not the simple man he claimed to be.
“Astute and engaging in his early days, Zuma along the way became driven by a lust for wealth and power,” Kasrils writes in his Zuma biography.
Using his skills acquired as head of the ANC’s intelligence services during apartheid, Mr Zuma silenced dissenting voices by promoting little-known civil servants to senior positions in the security and services portfolios. intelligence.
He also ensured that the ANC’s senior leadership was controlled by loyalists.
Zuma’s fortunes changed in December 2017, when his then-deputy Cyril Ramaphosa won the ANC leadership race, defeating his ex-wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to succeed him as party leader .
In the months that followed, corruption charges related to arms sales in the 1990s were reinstated and a judicial inquiry began hearings into corruption during his presidency.
In December 2023, Zuma announced that he would not campaign for the ANC in the May 29 elections and would support MK.
Although the country’s highest court ruled this month that he cannot run in the parliamentary elections, Zuma’s photo will still appear on the ballot because he is the official leader of MK.
His response to the decision, which cannot be overturned, has been characteristically combative, and the risk of unrest from his supporters remains a risk around the vote.
