MK will still do well without Zuma – experts

With or without Jacob Zuma, uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party remains a big threat to the ANC... but especially in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN).

In Zuma, Zulu traditionalists have found their replacement for the late King Goodwill Zwelithini, because he has a traditional outlook that fits the traditional figurehead they are looking for.

The current Zulu royal house instability has left traditionalists in a political limbo which Zuma would fill.

Two experts agreed that, despite the fact that Zuma had been barred from contesting the 29 May general elections due to his criminal record, he will remain a big influence in the party, which stand to gain immensely from his political experience and guile.

One of the experts, Dominic Maphaka, an emerging scholar from North-West University, said with Zuma backing MK, the party posed a threat to the ANC.

Looking at Zuma’s track record of being able to woo back ANC voters who defected to the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), as well as his popularity in KZN, the ANC is seeing the MK party as a threat, Maphaka said.

“Given that a political battle is won on the ground, the MK party will still do well without Zuma being the face of the party’s elections,” he said.

He said the 29 May elections will be the final stage of the work that political parties have been doing throughout the campaign to win votes.

By this date, he said, most eligible voters would have decided on the party that they want to vote for and the MK would undoubtedly benefit from Zuma’s political wisdom.

“Inferring from the party’s campaigns, it is observable that through Zuma, the MK has been able to create a fertile ground for voters to consider the party on 29 May,” Maphaka said.

The same sentiments were expressed by independent political analyst Goodenough Mashego who said KwaZulu-Natal would be a battleground and the ANC would meet its match in MK in the province.

“MK party is going to threaten the ANC in KZN, if they work hard, they might become the kingmakers,” Mashego said.

MK party had little support outside KZN and the IFP was seen as a representative of the Zulus outside the province, which gave it the upper hand to grab power in KZN and beat both the ANC and the MK party.

“The emergence of MK is threatening to the ANC because there are people who had voted for the IFP who now would rather vote for the MK party,” Mashego said.

He said even if Zuma had started a party and called it the Jacob Zuma party or Mayibuye party it would have resonated with his followers.

“Since Inkosi Goodwill Zwelithini passed on, many are struggling to find a very strong figure that they can rally around in KZN, someone with a traditional outlook given the fact that there are always challenges to King Misuzulu’s leadership,” Mashego said.