The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
South Africa’s scandal-ridden ex-president Jacob Zuma to run again
JACOB ZUMA, who resigned as South Africa’s president in shame in 2018, is now staging his biggest comeback act yet by running in next month’ s parliamentary elections with an up start opposition party at the top of its ticket — the slot designated for a party’s presidential contender.
Zuma’s participation in the race is a blow to a faltering african National Congress — the party he once led — which has governed the country since the end of apartheid three decades ago. The ANC and its leader, the country’s current president, Cyril Rama ph os a, are now struggling to win back the trust of voters.
Zuma, 81, won a big victory Tuesday when he was cleared by a court to be on the ballot, despite having served time in prison for refusing to testify in a corruption inquiry. On Wednesday, his party —umkhontowesizwe—released its list of national candidates with his name at the top.
His party, known as MK, was formed in December but has already climbed in the polls, gained ground in local elections and won several legal battles for the right to contest the May 29 election. If MK does well enough in the parliamentary elections, Zuma will secure a seat in Parliament. The new lawmakers will then elect the country’s next president. As a member of Parliament, Zuma would be eligible to be president, or could play kingmaker if the An c does no twin enough seats to form a government — as many political analysts anticipate.
“The victory of the MK marks disaster for the ANC,” said Bheki Mngomezulu, the director for the Center for the Advancement of Non-racialism and democracy at Nelson Mandela University.
The country’s Independent Electoral commission, which had barred him from running, has three days to challenge Tuesday’s ruling a ll owingz um a’ s candidacy.
The commission said it was now seeking legal advice. But analysts warned that another court challenge so close to election could damage the commission’s reputation and play in Zuma’s favor.
The ANC, which suspended Zuma as a party member in January over his campaigning for Mk, has tried several times to stop the new rival’s momentum.
It challenged the legality of MK’S electoral registration last month but lost a court bid. Then it tried to stop Zuma’s new party, which bears the name of the Anc’sapartheid-eraarmedwing, from using a name and colors historically associated with the party of Nelson Mandela, arguing that to do so would create confusion among voters. The court ruled in favor of Zuma then, too.
When the special electoral court sided with Zuma on Tuesday, it did not give reasons for its decision. An earlier decision by the Independent Electoral Commission had ruled him ineligible to run because of the 15month prison sentence he received for defying a court order in a national corruption inquiry three years ago. Zuma’s lawyers argued that he was in fact eligible, because he had been released on medical parole two months into his sentence and was later pardonedby rama ph os a, his successor and now political rival.