Opinion – Zuma’s resurgence shakes South Africa  …stands for millions of black people

Opinion – Zuma’s resurgence shakes South Africa  …stands for millions of black people

They persecuted him. They called him all sorts of bad names. Some coughed up phlegm and spat on him – especially those from the white monopoly capitalist community and many of his erstwhile comrades.

Paradoxically, he was tried and convicted by the courts that used the same Roman-Dutch laws he had fiercely fought against during the apartheid era. 

They unashamedly frog-marched him to prison – a freedom fighter par excellence and former head of state – Jacob Zuma of South Africa, the man I have always adored for his principled stance as a resilient fighter for the rights of the downtrodden from the days of the apartheid monster at the hands of the white supremacist regimes in his country. 

Against all these and other odds, millions of black people supported him and vowed to go to prison with him. 

A consistent revolutionary he formed the nascent uMkhonto Wesizwe Party (MK) five months before the May 2024 elections and garnered an overwhelming majority in the KZN Province and other provinces, shaking the ANC’s dominance in South African politics. They thought they had broken his spirit, his willpower, and his political clout.

His foes thought they had buried him politically by condemning him to prison for 15 months for the so-called ‘contempt of court’ charge. But no, Zuma’s renaissance was and is roaring, shaking Mzanzi from the Limpopo River to Cape Town, his MK Party spread rapidly like a veld fire.

Msholozi, MK Party, here! Msholozi, MK Party, there – until Msholozi was ubiquitous in the length and breadth of Mzanzi. Zuma and the MK Party became inseparable as the MK Party became Zuma, and Zuma became the MK Party, bringing hope, jubilation, and rejuvenation to millions of black South Africans and other races who supported him.

His enemies and detractors were dumbfounded. How come the man they had condemned as a spent force and criminal was commanding so much popularity from both the young and the old in the country? Their smear campaign and mudslinging against him had not worked.

What some of his enemies did not know or chose to ignore was that Zuma was one of the patriots who survived the bullets during the liberation struggle, ‘matigari manjuruungi,’ as Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thi’ongo calls them. For more on the escapades of the freedom fighter Matigari, read the novel Matigari by wa Thi’ongo.

So, Zuma’s MK Party, which came into being on 16 December 2023, contested the 29 May 2024 elections and garnered 14% of the votes (58 seats in parliament), coming third behind ANC and DA in first and second places, respectively. A great showing, more than a resounding success in the history of South Africa. 

This was an unambiguous statement that Zuma and the MK Party carry the aspirations of the millions of South Africans who suffered at the apartheid monster. It was a good way of ending the year for Zuma, the MK Party, and its groundswell of supporters to celebrate MK’s first anniversary as a political party on 15 December 2024. 

The MK Party juggernaut roared in pomp and pride, showing its splendid display of supporters in party paraphernalia and, of course, performing the toi-toi dance that is symbolic of the fight against apartheid and colonialism in South Africa. 

The Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban, the venue for first anniversary celebrations last Sunday, was overflowing with cheerful MK Party supporters who could not hide their admiration of party leader, Zuma. The songs, chants, and dances gave a lasting impression of a joyous, well-attended party occasion that will go down in the annals of history as one of the best first anniversary celebrations in South Africa.

To all intents and purposes, the MK Party represents the aspirations of the black people to continue fighting for total liberation from neo-colonialism. 

The black people need to take ownership of the means of production, especially land, from the white minority capitalists. 

The masses see the MK Party as the only avenue through which past injustices that still bedevil the nation can be addressed. Zuma and other analysts have criticised the ANC for getting into a marriage of convenience with the predominantly white DA party in the so-called government of national unity. 

Zuma’s political comeback after falling from grace has already started changing the political landscape in South Africa. 

The MK Party is poised to make wide inroads in the public sphere in all provinces in the country. Happy birthday, MK Party!

*Professor Jairos Kangira is a professor of English at the University of Namibia.