Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal. Photo: PublicDomainPictures | Pixabay
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Not only does Zuma challenge the ANC politically, but he also claims its heritage.
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Mashupye Herbert Maserumule, professor of public affairs at Tshwane University of Technology, in an article entitled “Jacob Zuma, the monster South Africa’s ruling ANC created, continues to haunt it” (published on 27 January 2024 in The Conversation, a global non-profit journalism project), explains South Africa’s former president Jacob Zuma endorsing the newly established uMkhonto we Sizwe Party (MK Party) founded on 16 December 2023. He is the first on the list of 199 candidates standing. This new party takes its name from the African National Congress’s uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the “Spear of the Nation”, its armed organisation founded on 16 December 1961. This followed the Sharpeville massacre of 21 March 1960, when people peacefully demonstrated against the pass laws. It resulted in the banning of the African National Congress (ANC) and other black political organisations later that year. Interesting to note are Maserumule’s remarks that not only does Zuma challenge the ANC politically, but he also claims its heritage. A feature of this heritage is the birth of this new party, MK, on the same day, 16 December (2023). Sharing a birthday with the eponymous paramilitary wing of the ANC can rank as a common factor in the heritages of the two organisations.
The question of heritage goes further back. The founding date of the ANC’s MK corresponds with an event that occurred on 16 December 1838, thus 123 years before. This is when Afrikaner and Zulu people confronted each other over land issues at a place in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) known as Blood River, situated between Vryheid and Nquthu on the Ncome River. This event, enshrined in Afrikaner mythology for more than a century and a half, was known as the Day of the Vow, or Dingaan’s Day, for the victory the Afrikaner people had over the Zulu people at that place. After 1994, however, the date of 16 December was included as one of South Africa’s public holidays, acknowledging the significance of both the Afrikaner and liberation struggle traditions. Today, it is known as the Day of Reconciliation to bring people from former differing backgrounds together in the name of reconciliation and nation-building.
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The past “legacy” of violence presents a challenge to public representatives seeking election at the national polls, to uphold Chapter 2 of the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, in which is included the right to be free from all forms of violence.
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The province of KwaZulu-Natal, where former president Zuma currently resides just more than an hour by car from where the battle took place, has seen a great amount of political violence over the course of centuries. Battles between ethnic groups, skirmishes with the colonial authorities, wars – this characterises KZN’s history from hundreds of years back: Gqokli Hill, the Mfecane, the Langalibalele affair, the Anglo-Zulu War, the carving up of Zululand by the colonial authorities, and political violence in the apartheid state and subsequently. The past “legacy” of violence presents a challenge to public representatives seeking election at the national polls, to uphold Chapter 2 of the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, in which is included the right to be free from all forms of violence. As South Africa approaches the 29 May 2024 elections, no less than 50 political parties will be contesting the elections – of which the MK Party will be one.
In an article in the Washington Post of 16 September 1994, journalist Paul Taylor explained the political trouble “brewing again in the bloodstained, history-soaked hills of Zululand” (article entitled “In Zululand, political violence cools off as simmering palace conflict heats up”). The context for this was the threat from the Zulu-based IFP (Inkatha Freedom Party) at the time of a climate of intense political violence in Natal before the 1994 elections. It wanted to boycott these elections because of insufficient recognition of it as the third largest political party in South Africa. According to Taylor, there was a chance of a civil war, with an average of up to 250 killings a month attributed to politics. Political violence in KwaZulu-Natal had been growing from the time of the early eighties and into the nineties, as the ANC and the United Democratic Front (UDF) opposed Inkatha (Michael MacInnes, “Inkatha, propaganda and violence in KwaZulu-Natal in the 1980s and ’90s”, Voces Novae, Article 4, 2020, Chapman University). This violence continued into 1994, abating at the time of the elections.
Even before that time, political violence in KZN according to the O’Malley archives “has taken as many as 20 000 lives since 1984, especially since September 1987, when open warfare broke out in the Pietermaritzburg region with a series of territorial battles between Inkatha and the United Democratic Front”. Inkatha received its support from the apartheid state’s security forces, while the UDF received theirs from the ANC and MK. More than half the number of these fatalities, according to the report, occurred after 1990 (with the unbanning of political movements in South Africa). The three-month period preceding the first fully democratic election in April 1994 was especially tense, when around 1 000 people were killed; and since 1994, some 2 000 people have been killed in political violence in KZN.
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“People are terrified. It is layer upon layer of violence that involves thugs, mafia, drug dealers, corrupt politicians and taxi hitmen. … In KZN, might is right. The bullies hold sway and it is getting worse.”
— Mary de Haas, veteran activist and violence monitor
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It goes further. In an article of 6 September 2023, Sakhiseni Nxumalo of the Sunday Times reports: since July 2018, more than 300 cases of political killings have been investigated by the multidisciplinary police task team in KwaZulu-Natal, over and above 155 murders, of which 52 were of councillors in KZN. “Of the 52 murder cases of councillors, 31 were ANC councillors while 14 were from the IFP. The National Freedom Party (NFP) lost four councillors, the Economic Freedom Front (EFF) two and the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) one.” In the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) Risk Bulletin #25 of May-June 2022, the following is reported: “KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) stands out among South Africa’s provinces for having the greatest frequency of politically linked assassinations.” According to veteran activist and violence monitor Mary de Haas in a series of interviews in March 2022 via WhatsApp, phone and email, high levels of violence have created a climate of intimidation that threatens to throttle democracy: “People are terrified. It is layer upon layer of violence that involves thugs, mafia, drug dealers, corrupt politicians and taxi hitmen. … In KZN, might is right. The bullies hold sway and it is getting worse.” Between 2000 and 2021, of the 418 political hits recorded nationwide, 213 took place in the last seven years, and of that number, 118 were in KZN.
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The newly formed MK Party will be canvassing side by side with the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), who have taken their election campaign to northern KwaZulu-Natal [...] – this point, against the fact that this area has been an ANC and IFP stronghold.
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The political landscape, as explained, will be the fields where election candidates will be foraging for the 2024 elections. The newly formed MK Party will be canvassing side by side with the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), who have taken their election campaign to northern KwaZulu-Natal (SABC’s Nonjabulo Mntungwa-Makamu, 30 April 2024, writing on the elections) – this point, against the fact that this area has been an ANC and IFP stronghold. According to the EFF’s secretary-general, Marshall Dlamini: “In 2019, remember that we grew from 80 000 votes to over 300 000 votes. In this province, nobody expected that. We are visible in eThekwini, in the hostel where normally it was a no-go area; it was the territory of the IFP and the ANC. But as we speak today, the EFF was accepted. They are receiving our message. The manifesto of the EFF it’s [sic] clear; it’s [more] about commitment than of empty promises.” These efforts could see to it that “no party wins KwaZulu-Natal with an outright majority”. He says further: “I can tell you now for a fact that even if the EFF can stop [sic] campaigning today, no one [else] is going to win this province. We have gathered enough ground of [sic] support to ensure that we are also going to be part of government. There is no one [else] who is going to win this province. But we have to put in more work on the ground, which is why we are crisscrossing the province. We are doing rallies and door-to-door.”
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What about the sitting ANC in KZN? “The party was thrown a curveball when its popular member, former president Jacob Zuma, announced that he would campaign for a rival organisation ahead of the crucial upcoming polls.”
— Clive Ndou, the political editor of The Witness
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What about the sitting ANC in KZN? According to Clive Ndou, the political editor of The Witness, in his article of 7 February 2024, “2024 general elections: KZN is out of reach for ANC”, he cites a survey compiled by David Everatt of the University of Witwatersrand. This points to a massive decline in support for the ANC there (and nationally): “The party was thrown a curveball when its popular member, former president Jacob Zuma, announced that he would campaign for a rival organisation ahead of the crucial upcoming polls.” Reacting to the poll, Mafika Mndebele of the ANC said that the survey was “out of touch with reality”, and that “as the ANC we are convinced that most of the so-called surveys are sponsored by regime-change agents whose sole intention is to discourage ANC voters”. Yet, as the article by Ndou says: “The ANC, which in the 2021 municipal elections dropped to below 50% of support in KZN, has in recent years been losing support to the EFF and IFP in the province.”
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What about the other parties? The DA and the IFP show a strong commitment to constitutionalism (including the question of land ownership); the EFF has a different view.
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What about the other parties? The DA and the IFP show a strong commitment to constitutionalism (including the question of land ownership); the EFF has a different view. On 15 February 2024, Lubabalo Ntsholo, a parliamentary researcher for the Economic Freedom Fighters, penned an article in Mail & Guardian entitled, “The EFF’s manifesto solves the land crisis”, in which he writes: “The EFF manifesto aims to dismantle this concentration of land in the hands of a few and distribute it as equitably as possible for a range of needs. The state is the most logical representation of people because it is a product of the choices people make on how society should be organised. Placing the land in the hands of the state is therefore placing the land in the hands of the people. There must be clear rules on how the state should exercise its powers over land. Hence the manifesto proposes the establishment of a state entity responsible for administering the land; a land ombud who would be responsible for resolving disputes between the people and the state; and the establishment of a land court to have exclusive jurisdiction over matters related to land. Under this arrangement, the land ceases to be a commodity for sale and purchase but rather becomes a common resource for the benefit of all. Ownership is replaced by land use rights, which are themselves material and cannot be easily disposed of without a reasonable intent and procedure.”
Yet, Reuters suggests that “the MK Party (who support expropriation and redistribution of land – my addition) has been eating into the EFF’s support base and could attract significant votes on 29 May, especially in Zuma’s home province of KwaZulu-Natal, where he retains a loyal following”.
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The traditional leaders and tribal authorities will be wooed by the ANC (afraid of the Marxist policies of the EFF and Zuma’s policy of expropriation and redistribution).
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In the article “South Africa election: Who are ANC and other rival parties vying for power?” of 8 May 2024, the writer explains that the chance is not excluded that in KZN the ruling African National Congress is likely to lose its majority after 30 years in power. It further says: “The EFF’s Malema, who has a complicated history with Zuma, has said his party is open to a post-election alliance with MK. Malema was once Zuma’s protégé, but the pair fell out, after which Malema left the ANC.” As for the IFP, the correspondent says: “The socially conservative IFP, led by Velenkosini Hlabisa, draws its support from KwaZulu-Natal, the Zulu heartland. Its policies include giving more power to traditional rulers and launching a national debate on reinstating the death penalty.” Furthermore: “Founded in 1975 by Zulu nationalist leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the IFP has a fraught history with the ANC. The parties were in violent conflict during the final years of apartheid, but worked together in the government of national unity that was formed after the 1994 election.” At the same time, ahead of the national elections in KZN, the Zulu king called for peaceful elections at the occasion of the opening of the KZN legislature earlier this year – his position that of a figurehead. The traditional leaders and tribal authorities will be wooed by the ANC (afraid of the Marxist policies of the EFF and Zuma’s policy of expropriation and redistribution).
According to Dr Ronesh Dhawraj, writing for the SABC (news research) on 8 March 2024, as the IFP is without its founding president, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, who died in September of 2023, there will be “more insights into its future electoral fortunes” after the elections. So, it is difficult to predict the situation with the loss of such a stately figure as Prince Buthelezi. Analysing the political scenario in KZN, Dhawraj explains the five key players in the KZN electoral 2024 landscape: the ANC, the IFP, the DA, the EFF and the NFP – but now, too, the MK Party, which, like Maserumule says, “is giving the ANC and other parties endless headaches”. Dhawraj explains the by-elections, where MK split the vote in Abaqulusi and uPhongolo, giving the IFP easy wins. This seems to be the narrative: MK’s objective is to diminish an ANC majority, according to Dhawraj, and “thereby force its kingmaker status on whichever party wins most votes”.
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The Z factor for KZN and the elections is going to be significant, while the hope for peace and reconciliation in a province characterised by much political violence must be at the forefront of citizens’ minds in the lead-up to these elections and beyond.
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If, as Mashupye Herbert Maserumule suggests, Zuma will be a possible rival to the governing ANC in the forthcoming elections (2024), challenging it politically and claiming its heritage, then the 5,7 million registered voters of KZN in the 2024 elections will be the chink in the armour he and his new party will exploit. Zuma’s face features firmly on some of the MK posters, with yet another heritage KZN symbol, the posthumous face of Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, doing the same on the current IFP posters.
Clearly, the Z factor for KZN and the elections is going to be significant, while the hope for peace and reconciliation in a province characterised by much political violence must be at the forefront of citizens’ minds in the lead-up to these elections and beyond. With recent events such as the 2021 riots, which unnerved peace-loving citizens in all corners of the country, the newly elected councillors who will be required to promote South Africa’s democracy as far as possible, will have their work cut out for them.
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