Zuma urges unity among black parties to reclaim political power

Former president and MK Party leader Jacob Zuma has called for black political parties to come together under one organisation.

This will make it possible for black people to get a two-thirds majority and “take back their country”, he said, suggesting the MK Party be used as this vehicle.

Zuma was speaking at his party’s one-year anniversary celebrations at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban.

He told thousands of MK Party supporters that white people are more united than black people and are able to easily pursue one mission.

Black people ought to be able to unite under a single organisation and fight to lift black people out of poverty.

He did not say it outright, but suggested the MK Party should be the party under which everyone unites.

“In the coming elections, as black people, let’s forget our different political parties and vote for a single party as blacks to get back our land.”

Zuma has been saying he established the MK Party to “rescue” the ANC, which has since expelled him.

It emerged recently that Zuma has also tried to collapse the EFF into the MK Party.

This attempt was made clear in a report said to have been compiled by former EFF national chair Dali Mpofu while he was still in the EFF. Mpofu has since left the EFF and joined the MK Party.

The EFF at the time rejected this suggestion.

Since then, several high profile EFF members have joined the MK Party including the party’s former deputy president Floyd Shivambu who now serves as MK Party’s secretary-general.

Other high profile leaders who have since left the EFF for the MK Party include former MPs Mpofu, Busisiwe Mkhwebane and Mzwanele Manyi.

These departures have sent the EFF into a tailspin, with some of the EFF leadership viewing this move as an attempt to destroy the party.

They believe Zuma has infiltrated the party and is on a mission to destroy it.

Zuma’s call for blacks to vote for a single party seems to be in line with the purging of leaders from various political parties.

He said the proliferation of black parties was making it difficult for black people to get a two-thirds majority to make changes to the constitution which would go a long way in alleviating poverty.

This arrangement would not be permanent but a temporary strategy with the sole purpose of taking back power, he said.

Once this mission is achieved as early as the next elections, everyone would be able to go back and vote for their different parties in the elections that would follow.

“We need to vote and get a two-thirds majority, get most of the votes and take back our country. We have not been able to achieve this; why is that? We are all failing to achieve it,” said Zuma.

“We should invite other parties and say in this coming election, let us forget about all these other things and our different political parties so that all of us black people vote to take back our country so that we can end hunger, poverty, being undermined and seen as people.

“After that election people can go back to their original parties because by then we would be in charge of the country. Just this once, will we not be able to achieve that?”

He said the milestone achieved by the MK Party showed they meant business.

“I am saying, on this anniversary of [MK Party] today [Sunday] even those who could not see it must see it now. We are not playing. This is the last phase of taking back the country,” said Zuma.

He said people need to stop saying the elections were far away as they were only four years from now.

It was therefore prudent that discussions be held as soon as possible.

Not voting together as black people was a missed opportunity which ought to be corrected to lift blacks from poverty, he said.

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