Zuma’s desire to remain an ANC member can’t be going down all that well in the MK party, especially in the Kingdom, its stronghold and the source of its national political presence. (Photo by Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Images)
Thursday.
It is no real surprise that former president Jacob Zuma placed the ANC on terms this week with a letter of demand that he be reinstated as a member of the party he once led — or else.
There was no way Zuma was going to allow the ANC’s 113th anniversary party in Cape Town to go ahead without at least an attempt to steal its thunder — and headlines — by one means or another.
uBaba couldn’t exactly turn up and make a fashionably late entrance, just as the party’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, was about to utter his first “amandla”, as he used to do before he launched the MK party.
The ANC chuckers-out have reportedly been given copies of the old man’s picture and strict instructions not to allow him anywhere near Mandela Park in Cape Town’s Khayelitsha township — just in case.
With no option of turning up like a deadbeat dad at his abandoned child’s birthday party to spoil Cyril’s Saturday, uBaba was left with the option of staging his own rally in Cape Town to upstage the ANC anniversary.
January 6 vibes.
But the MK party didn’t exactly shoot out the lights at its own anniversary rally in Durban in December, where it had both home-ground advantage and a public holiday weekend to work with and still flopped.
Most of the crowd had already headed home by the time Zuma started speaking, tired of roasting in the sun while waiting for him to arrive at the Moses Mabhida Stadium, so he decided against taking on the ANC in a stadium battle.
Which left Zuma with the choice of allowing the ANC to proceed, unmolested, with its big day without his shadow hanging over the event for the first time in as long as most of us can remember — or going to court.
Fish will swim, birds will fly and uBaba will litigate, so Zuma took the road most travelled (in his case, at least) and lawyered up again in a bid to get the rain to fall on the ANC’s — and Cyril’s — parade on the eve of its most auspicious of events.
uBaba wants his expulsion from the ANC to be revoked by the end of the month, otherwise he will once more tread the well-beaten path to the high court to force ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula to give his membership card back.
By whatever means necessary.
The old man’s arguments in favour of him being allowed to remain a member of the ANC after he started the party that removed its majority nationally and in KwaZulu-Natal don’t make very much sense.
In terms of the ANC’s constitution, uBaba has about as much right to remain a member of the black, gold and green as Mosiuoa Lekota, Julius Malema and Bantu Holomisa, all of whom started their own parties after they left — or, like Zuma, were shown the proverbial door.
The Congress of the People, the Economic Freedom Fighters and the United Democratic Movement all did far less damage to the ANC — electorally speaking — after setting up shop elsewhere than Nxamalala did.
Likewise Vuyo Zungula’s African Transformation Movement and Ace Magashule’s African Congress for Transformation, another two splinter parties bred by the ANC’s internal power struggles.
All of the above would theoretically be far more welcome than Zuma should they request to return to the fold — well, maybe not Ace — having collectively caused the ANC far less drama and cost it significantly fewer votes than uBaba ka Duduzane and his followers.
ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe said as much this week, arguing that Zuma had as much right to remain an ANC member as Lekota or Malema did — none — and as much chance as they did as being given the prodigal son treatment.
Zuma’s desire to remain an ANC member can’t be going down all that well in the MK party, especially in the Kingdom, its stronghold and the source of its national political presence.
The party has hit a wall in the by-elections since May; there’s drama between the people who won them the province and those who have been brought in to lead them, parallel structures have sprung up everywhere and suspension letters are flying because of a fight over who gets control over the R60 million in funding from the legislature.
It’s not a good look.
The wheels appear to be coming off the party that made the ANC’s wheels come off the last time we voted, just in time for the start of the 2026 election campaign — not the ideal time for its leader to be more interested in getting his former party’s membership card back.
