Former President Jacob Zuma has become the latest to call out what he believes to be meddling in South Africa’s electoral politics by foreign interests. Zuma who presented the MK party’s manifesto in Soweto on Saturday expressed frustration with the number of new parties and said they were formed to derail transformation.
“That is why I say on the 29th all of us black people should come out in numbers to reclaim the country because if we don’t win with two thirds majority we will not be able to change those things cause others may just come and oppose us m. I have a problem that there’s now so many political parties. They take money from white people and for them going to parliament is a career move,” he said in isiZulu.
Zuma’s comments come on the back of revelations that fellow newly formed parties, all of them centre right in orientation, the exact identity of the DA and led by people who have had ties, directly or otherwise with the official opposition, are being funded with millions of rands by powerful white families such as the Openheimers.
Most surprising was confirmation that a political party that found the going hard and threw in the towel long before the elections has secured funding to the tune of R35 million. Roger Jardine’s Change Starts Now lost momentum shortly after launching.
The MK is itself just five months old but Zuma believes it has proven itself to be a political party that should be taken seriously while most of the others were not. Zuma once again suggested there could be attempts to rig the elections vowing to expose it if it happened. “ I hear others could be busy printing or marking ballots. We don’t know if it’s true or not but I want to warn them that we would know if they tried and they will be exposed,” said Zuma of his former party.
The likes of EFF, ATM, Al Jamah, and Bantu Holomisa’s UDM believe the heavy funding of this group of untested outfits that may quit as soon as it gets tough, is meant to divide black vote and improve chances of a liberal takeover through a coalition.