The former president Jacob Zuma-endorsed MK Party will be embarking on a vigorous national campaign in the next few weeks as it seeks to dispel the notion that it is a KwaZulu-Natal-based party.
On December 16 Zuma announced that he would campaign and vote for the party in this year’s general elections.
On Friday and Saturday, Zuma will campaign in Limpopo with visits to the Collins Chabane burial site, traditional and religious leaders and a business forum, culminating in a rally at the Malamulele Stadium. He will end the month with a rally at KwaXimba Stadium in KZN.
The party has established branches in all nine provinces and released a list of the names of interim co-ordinators and convenors as it attempts to establish formal structures ahead of the elections.
“The alignment of other parties to the MK Party, like Ace Magashule’s ACT and BFLF shows there is a national consolidation taking place. The party is taking its campaign to Limpopo, then the Free State, North West and Gauteng and this will reveal it has national relevance that is not limited to KZN,” a source said.
Late last year Zuma announced that he would not campaign “for the ANC of (Cyril) Ramaphosa in 2024”, saying his conscience would not allow him to lie to the people of South Africa. He said he had consulted with traditional and religious leaders and civil society before coming to his decision and he would consult widely with these groupings.
MK Party spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndlela said Zuma’s meeting on Wednesday with izinduna, amakhosi and members of different royal families in Nkandla was a continuation of these discussions.
“They had indicated that they trust Zuma and want him to campaign for the presidency because serious challenges like load shedding are not being dealt with by the ANC government.
“Traditional leaders represent the owners of the land and its resources, and this is why the former president will engage with them nationally.
“They feel they have been ostracised and their land has been exploited by the current government,” Ndlela said.
UDM leader Bantu Holomisa on Wednesday said that analysis of the newly formed party had missed the mark and that the party was leading to a split in the ANC in all nine provinces.
“There is no way that a party formed recently is trending every day. Zuma was miles ahead and planned this a long time ago,” Holomisa said.
“There is a strong chance that ANC members who felt they were treated badly and were considering withholding their votes will now find that a space has been created for them to vote.”
Holomisa said Zuma had nothing to lose and that the political dynamic of the country, ahead of the elections, had been altered.
Political analyst Professor Bheki Mngomezulu said the MK Party had made inroads at a national level and a number of ANC leaders were considering “crossing the border”.
“In KZN, the ANC and IFP are in trouble ... (the latter) stood a chance at taking the province from the ANC but the emergence of MK has changed this.
There are even IFP members who may be lured to the new party.”
Another analyst, Thabani Khumalo, said MK was a nationally based party.
“The Radical Economic Transformation movement was a national grouping in the ANC ... This MK has been formed from that national arrangement.”
Khumalo said the party was a political disruptor that would disrupt the entire political landscape, especially the ANC nationally and the IFP in KZN.
The Mercury