Jacob Zuma hoping to get support in bid for election re-run

Former President Jacob Zuma is hoping to get support from ordinary South Africans in his bid to have a re-run of the recent elections. Zuma is adamant that the polls were rigged to prevent his party from winning and has approached both the electoral court and the constitutional court in a bid to force a recount and ultimately fresh elections.

Zuma announced during a media briefing held in Johannesburg on Sunday that the MK party’s 58 elected MPs would finally take up their seats in parliament where he said they will take the fight to the so called government of national unity which he dismisses as essentially a DA-ANC coalition that must be destroyed before it gains momentum.

“We need to educate our people that there is no government of national unity in South Africa. There’s a white-led unholy alliance between the DA and the ANC of Cyril Ramaphosa. It is for the benefit of the market and not the people. It must be crashed before it finds its feet. Why is its founding documents only signed by Mbalula and Helen Zille,” said Zuma in a statement read at the briefing by MK spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndlela.

Zuma said Mk has now joined the so-called ‘ progressive forum’ a group of left leaning political parties advocating for among others land reform and transformation of the economy and will be fighting the GNU through that platform within and outside parliament. He accused his successor and now opponent Cyril Ramaphosa of having missed an opportunity to be on the right side when he opted to involve right wing Democratic Alliance in the government he’s constituting.

“At 40 %, the ANC of Ramaphosa had an opportunity to team up with those fighting for the total liberation of the people and a return of the land or team up with those who stand for racism, white supremacy, backwardness, land theft, Zionism and other ends. They decided to go to bed with the racists. By doing so the ANC of Ramaphosa has defined itself outside progressive forces of change. It has defined itself against the majority of the oppressed. The ANC of Ramaphosa must be treated as part of the problem and no longer as part of the solution,” said Zuma of the party he once led and later campaigned against while still insisting he remains a member of.

Zuma has not ruled out the possibility of mass protests saying at the right time the people will be called upon to challenge the status quo in the streets.

“We call on our people to demand to know what happened to their votes. They have the right to know.  We will therefore at the right time call on our people to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with all these injustices peacefully in the streets, in the courts and even in parliament until our grievances are addressed, he said also dismissing claims by his opponents that MK party is anti constitutionalism. The ANC has been criticised by even its own members and leaders for the DA deal but the party is adamant it made the best decision under the circumstances and that the alternative would have been a disastrous alliance with the likes of MK and EFF which is convinced would have brought instability in the country.

“This is a time to think, its not the time to be populist and so on. You’ve got to put the country first in terms of ensuring that there’s stability and all of that and that everyone is committed to taking the country forward,” said ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula defending the deal.
Meanwhile Zuma is also still hoping the GNU could still be rejected from the ANC’s own ranks.
“ The door is always open for the real ANC to be welcomed back in the progressive fold,” he said.