Former president Jacob Zuma has called for ‘peaceful demonstrations’ if his demands to annul the results of May’s elections are not met. He claimed the results were ‘rigged’ against his uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party.

Just days after newly re-elected President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a Government of National Unity (GNU), MK Party national spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela yesterday read a statement on behalf of Zuma dismissing the coalition between the ANC, DA, IFP, and PA nationally, and including the NFP in KZN.

On Friday, the MK Party lodged an appeal with the Electoral Court in Bloemfontein to set aside the election results.

Zuma said the MK Party — which received 45% of the votes in KZN and 14% nationally — had millions of its votes given to ‘other parties’.

“When we went to the IEC and told them not to declare the election results because we have evidence of the irregularities, they refused. We have tried all peaceful means to address our grievances. We call on all our supporters to be patient even in the mid of all provocations by institutions of democracy,” he said.

When the MK Party approached the Constitutional Court to block the National Assembly’s first sitting, Zuma claimed the court used ‘technicalities’ to avoid listening to them.

MK Party does not believe in use of violence – Zuma

Apart from the call for mass demonstrations, Zuma said if the court rules against the MK Party, the organisation will seek justice internationally.

Zuma emphasised that the planned demonstrations will be peaceful, adding that the MK Party does not believe in ‘the use of violence to resolve problems’.

In the lead-up to the May 29 elections, the MK Party promised its supporters that it would abolish the Constitution if elected to power.

The South African Constitution, the party argued, was not suitable for the country’s circumstances as it was based on Roman and Dutch law.

During yesterday’s press briefing, Zuma reiterated the party’s position on the Constitution.

“We are South Africans, we are not Dutch or Romans,” he said.

The MK Party, which secured 37 seats in the KZN Legislature and 58 in the National Assembly, boycotted Parliament’s first sitting on Friday, which re-elected Ramaphosa.

Zuma said the boycott was part of the MK Party’s protest against the ‘vote rigging’ and indicated that the organisation would go to Parliament to ‘work with progressive parties to liberate our people’.

‘Unholy alliance’

Zuma dismissed the GNU as an ‘unholy alliance’ controlled by ‘white capital’ and called on ‘progressive’ political parties not to allow the GNU to proceed.

We need to educate our people that there is no government of national unity in South Africa. There is a white-led unholy alliance between DA and the ANC of Ramaphosa.

“It is sponsored by big businesses and it is for the benefit of the markets and not the people. It must be crushed before it finds its feet,” said Zuma.

Despite leading the MK Party, Zuma has maintained that he is still a member of the ANC.

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said on Saturday that Zuma had brought the ANC into disrepute by campaigning for a rival party and would face disciplinary action.

“The disciplinary committee against Zuma will continue; nothing has changed. We said before the elections that it must be postponed to after the elections. That disciplinary process will continue,” he added.

July 2021 unrest

In July 2021, a wave of unrest engulfed the country shortly after Zuma was jailed for contempt of court. Some 350 people died, and the violence and destruction caused damage to infrastructure and businesses, costing South Africa’s economy about R50b.

According to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), a further two million jobs were lost or affected.

SAHRC commissioner Philile Ntuli attributed some responsibility for the unrest to ‘the apparent lapses in law enforcement by State Security agencies, particularly in the South African Police Service’.

Ntuli described the unrest as a well-orchestrated and ‘violent culmination of deep-rooted political and social challenges’ that South Africa had been facing.

“Evidence indicated that the acts during the unrest were well-orchestrated, including the blocking of the N3, destruction of factories and warehouses, attacks on government communication facilities, and bombing and theft of ATMs. These events were interconnected and required significant resources,” he said in his report.

“Two types of actors were identified during the unrest: Primary actors, who led and executed widespread destruction, and secondary actors, who participated in theft. The timing of the events coincided with the incarceration of former president Jacob Zuma, leading to a perception that the two were related,” Ntuli said, adding that no evidence directly linked Zuma’s supporters to the violence.