MALEMA’S ‘AGITATION’ PALES AGAINST ZUMA’S ‘WARLORDISM’

Tue 30 July 2024:

Jacob Zuma’s expulsion from the African National Congress (ANC) is official. But his departure from the ANC is unlike any other before, according to a political analyst.

Speaking in an interview with Salaamedia on Tuesday, Ongama Mtimka warned Zuma’s self-inflicted ousting from the liberation movement could have greater consequences for the country, not just the party.

“Sometimes, their rhetoric makes one cringe because it sounds as though they want to start an armed struggle in South Africa,” he said, referring to the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) for which Zuma paid the price of his ANC membership.

On Monday, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula confirmed that the former president had been expelled. It had determined that he was guilty on two counts (founding and campaigning for the breakaway party).

“His platform is dangerous, appeals to extremist instincts in our body politic and riles up a political base that may foment social unrest,” Mbalula told reporters in Johannesburg.

‘Warlordism’

Comparing the MKP to Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) – also an ANC breakaway – Mtimka suggested there was something unnerving about Zuma’s new platform.

“The activities of former president Jacob Zuma are tantamount to those of warlords, minus the militia that [is] usually a characteristic of warlords. This activity of failing to achieve your political ambition inside the party in two elective conferences and then deciding to go and campaign outside, using rhetoric which is delegitimizing the very government and the Constitutional order of the republic is a cause for concern,” he said.

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The main difference, he argued, was that Malema’s radical approach remained within the confines of a democratic system. But when a party campaigns against the Constitution, as did the MKP in 2024, that is a dangerous road.

“Even though Julius Malema’s agitations are also anti-systemic, they are not to the extent of it being tantamount to mobilising for a social unrest. He is acting within the confines of democratic practice to try and advance what he calls economic freedom in our lifetime.”

“What Jacob Zuma has appeared to be doing in different times sometimes causes one to wonder whether they want an armed struggle or they are prepared to limit themselves to democratic practices in Parliament,” he added.

Zuma’s MKP swept KwaZulu-Natal in this year’s general elections, garnering 45.35% of the provincial vote. This placed it just slightly out of reach of power, but it was eventually sidelined by an ANC-DA-IFP-NFP coalition.