DURBAN, South Africa (AP) — 59-year-old Dumisani Ndlovu has voted in every national election in South Africa since he and the rest of the black majority finally won the right 30 years ago. He has consistently supported the liberation party-turned-ruling party, the African National Congress.
That ends Wednesday. In a way, nostalgia calls. Ndlovu is turning his support in this week’s election to the man, Jacob Zuma, whose career stretched from the liberation struggle to the presidency before falling out with his ANC colleagues and re-emerging last year with a new political party.
The MK party, named after the old armed wing of the ANC, shows how 82-year-old Zuma uses the past to rally the support of South Africans against the ANC, which he once claimed would rule until ‘ Jesus returns’.
Here in the Zuma-supporting heartland of KwaZulu-Natal’s eastern province, taxi driver Ndlovu has embraced the unlikely comeback of a political survivor after years of corruption allegations, criminal charges and imprisonment. Even his exclusion from these elections as a parliamentary candidate due to a recent conviction has not weakened Zuma’s influence.
“They think they’re done with him, but we’re behind him all the way. The ANC will pay,” Ndlovu said.
It is a rallying cry that could force the ANC into a coalition for the first time to stay in power. The new party is putting forward other candidates for Parliament and seems likely to win seats.
Zuma has become the wild card of the elections for Africa’s most advanced country, six years after resigning from the presidency of South Africa under a cloud. His MK party was formed just over six months ago and yet significant support is expected to flow away from the ANC, which has already passed its toughest test.
Zuma’s credentials – he was imprisoned with Nelson Mandela for his work in the anti-apartheid movement – are particularly resonant in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal.
Ndlovu, the taxi driver, had supported the ANC since the end of the white minority government’s apartheid system in 1994. Now one of his grievances against the ANC is what he calls its poor treatment of Zuma.
“During apartheid he went to prison and then they (the ANC) put him back in prison despite all his sacrifices. What kind of freedom is that?” said Ndlovu.
Zuma was sent to prison in 2021 after refusing to testify in an investigation into alleged corruption within the government during his time as president from 2009 to 2018. He called that sentence an attempt by the ANC to silence him .
Zuma said last week’s decision by the Constitutional Court to disqualify him as a candidate was part of a grudge against him by the ruling party and the courts. The constitution does not allow anyone to stand for election if he or she has been sentenced to twelve months or more in prison without the possibility of a fine.
“I am going to fight for my rights until this country agrees that freedom should be complete freedom, not for some and oppression for others,” Zuma said.
He now fights under the banner of the MK, which he formed as the vanguard of anti-apartheid struggle ideals such as the distribution of land to black people.
The party’s symbol is similar to the logo of the old military wing of the ANC. The full name is uMkhonto weSizwe, which means Spear of the Nation. The ANC has taken MK to court over its use of the name, which it claims it owns. MK won. It was another example of the ANC trying to silence him, Zuma said.
Zuma’s new party is also looking to the future, promising jobs, free education and better health care for young people who make up the majority of the country’s population. They have no memory of apartheid, but they do have many grievances about the deep inequality that still exists.
Zuma claims to be a truer version of the ANC and more committed to helping South Africa’s poor black majority.
His party’s naming is welcomed by supporters because of its anti-apartheid nostalgia.
“I have known uMkhonto all my life. It fought for freedom. This time it is back for us,” Ndlovu said.
How such loyalty – and the ANC’s irritation about it – could translate into votes will become clear on Wednesday.
“It could make people want them (MK) more because the question that arises is: why put so much pressure on this party? There must be something there, and I think people are intrigued and they might just vote for them,” Sanet Madonsela-Solomon, a political science lecturer at the University of South Africa, told TV station eNCA this week. .
At MK’s last major campaign rally in KwaZulu-Natal last weekend, grey-haired men and women in military uniforms joined youthful supporters dressed in skinny jeans and manicured nails. Together they danced to old anti-apartheid songs that evoked the hardships of that period. They praised deceased ANC icons such as Mandela and criticized current ANC leaders.
“uMkhonto is not just for the people of KwaZulu-Natal, it is a calling for South Africa as a whole,” said one participant, Siboniso Gwala. “The spear is what will free this country. uMkhonto will liberate black people.”
His 6-year-old son, Nkanyezi, was in tow, singing along and wearing a beret with the MK symbol: a warrior with a spear and shield.
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