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Former South African President Jacob Zuma recently denounced the ruling African National Congress party and announced that he would vote for a newly-formed political formation in South Africa’s general election next year
Former South African President Jacob Zuma recently denounced the ruling African National Congress party and announced that he would vote for a newly-formed political formation in South Africa’s general election next year.
Zuma, who was president of the ANC from 2007 to 2017, said that he’s backing the newly-formed Umkhonto we Sizwe party which is named after the ANC’s now-defunct military wing, which was disbanded after the liberation struggle.
Zuma, 81, called on other South Africans to vote for the new formation, saying it would be “a betrayal to vote for the ANC” of President Cyril Ramaphosa. The country’s general election scheduled for 2024 is expected to be highly contested, because the ruling ANC, which has governed the country since Nelson Mandela became South Africa’s first democratically-elected leader in 1994, faces a myriad of challenges.
Recent polls have suggested that the ANC could for the first time garner less than 50% of the national vote in next year’s election and may need to form a coalition government to remain in power. Briefing journalists in Johannesburg’s Soweto township recently, Zuma described his decision as part of rescuing the ANC.
Zuma was ousted as the country’s president by Ramaphosa in 2018 amid wide-ranging allegations of corruption in government and state-owned companies during his presidential tenure from 2009 to 2018. Since he departed from the country’s highest office, Zuma has been facing legal battles.
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The ANC is expected to face fierce competition from the opposition parties Democratic Alliance and the Economic Freedom Fighters. But smaller parties and independent candidates could be crucial in case of coalition negotiations. The ANC indicated this week that they will legally challenge the use of the name Umkhonto we Sizwe by the new political formation because the name belonged to the party.
