Coalition targets Zuma supporters
HAVING competed for the votes of former president Jacob Zuma’s staunchest supporters, Hlaudi Motsoeneng’s African Content Movement (ACM) and the Mazibuye African Congress (MAC) announced this week that they would merge ahead of the May 8 general elections.
Motsoeneng and MAC party boss Reggie Ngcobo are hoping to tap a vein of discontent among Zuma’s supporters, who are still grumbling about the machinations which saw him booted from office when Cyril ramaphosa emerged as president at the ANC’S elective conference in 2017.
During Zuma’s presidency, Motsoeneng’s rule at the SABC, Supra Mahumapelo’s rule in North West and Ace Magashule’s rule in Free State, formed a patronage network that was envied by those who were sidelined for being in the wrong faction.
The beneficiaries of that network are now at the forefront of calls for the implementation of “RET” (radical economic transformation), even if those policies are obscure.
Small music producers and musicians who benefited from the SABC’S 90/10 (90% local) music policy during Motsoeneng’s reign at the broadcaster have thrown their weight behind him.
In September last year, a media briefing of the MAC in Marikana, North West, was attended by former Umkhonto we Sizwe members, and their presence was telling. It means that those who benefited from Zuma’s rule, Motsoeneng’s reign at the SABC and the marginalised who see their policies as a vehicle to lift them out of poverty, may back the ACM/MAC coalition at the ballot on May 8.
A conservative estimate by
Xolani Dube, a political analyst from Durban-based Xubera Research Institute, is that they will get two seats in the National Assembly.
“I don’t see them changing anything or being kingmakers in Parliament as they won’t get many seats,” Dube said.
However, he warned that should, post-elections,these parties partner with more formidable proret forces like Black First Land
First (BLF) and Jimmy (Mzwanele) Manyi’s African Transformation Movement (ATM), they could make an impact in the political landscape.
“If all the pro-ret parties like
BLF of Mngxitama (Andile) and
ATM form a coalition in Parliament, they will make a difference.”
I don’t see them being kingmakers in Parliament as they won’t get many seats
Xolani Dube Political analyst