By Looking at all the political moves unfolding in South Africa, including the Government of National Unity (GNU), it makes perfect sense for all the left progressive forces to unit and form one big party; but the question then is, who stands to benefit at the end of the day.
Following interviews where some of the former heavy weights of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) revealed that there was a proposal to collapse all the progressive forces into uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) to form a big party that will resist the ANC and its GNU ahead of the 2024 national elections.
The Commander in Chief (CIC) of the EFF Mr Julius Malema said during the party’s podcast Adv. Dali Mphofu came with a written proposal for the EFF to join MKP and meetings were held in that regard and tried to get all other parties to do the same. But during one meeting, a question was posed, why join MKP instead of the EFF?
The argument was that the EFF is a well-run machine with a national footprint and has been in existence for some time compared to MKP. According to Malema, Zuma responded, “Imagine the elderly voting for the EFF, no senior citizen will vote for the EFF.”
Malema refused outright to join the MKP; it is evident that even some of the parties to date have rejected the idea of collapsing their parties into the MKP.
But why the MKP and not the EFF? In South African politics, being a president of a political party paves you the way to become the president of the country should you win the elections. MKP went into the 2024 elections with the hope of getting two thirds majority votes that will launch them into power and Jacob Zuma becoming the country’s president.
The party took quiet a huge chunk from the ANC and the EFF voter support and became the third biggest party, on the other hand, the EFF was confident to rise to power or become an official opposition party after the elections.
Now that both parties did not achieve what they hoped for, they were forced to go back to the drawing board for some evaluation and preparing for the local elections in 2026. The EFF is experiencing an exodus to the MKP, losing some of its powerful leaders.
It seems MKP is shopping in other party’s baskets, they are not growing their party from ground up but poaching leaders from other parties and the EFF seems to be the main target.
Should Zuma succeed to get all the parties under his wing, he will be the most powerful leader with a guaranteed majority vote. Going into national elections, his path will be cleared for him, he will become the next president of South Africa and making history while at it; for South Africa has never had a comeback president under a different party name, well, at least not in the democratic dispensation.
Whether his reign will be a positive thing for the country given his history, age and grudge towards the ANC, is a debate for another day. But for the progressive forces to go under the MKP banner will mean that they must give up their ambitions of ever becoming presidents of the country.
Since the MKP is a family empire, should Zuma be president of the country, who will become the deputy president?
The uncomfortable matter with MKP is that, its leader made it clear that they want the ANC back, should they be in power, the main aim is revenge, take the ANC back and expel those who expelled him. Supporting the MKP could mean the death of other parties and probably lead to the demise of the ANC.
Should the MKP and Zuma collapse into the EFF, Zuma’s prospects of becoming a president of the country are zero and close to non-existence given his age and record, Malema is the president of the party and he will stand for presidency, the party itself believes in young people taking over the reins; of which Zuma is none of that, the only way to be a president is through the MKP.
None of his children are politically astute, which role will they play because at the moment their only ace card is their father’s name.
