Zuma said he will win the local elections after meeting a spiritual guru in India
Former president Jacob Zuma in the Pietermaritzburg High Court. Picture: X/@MkhontoweSizwex
Former president Jacob Zuma said he believes he now has the “power” and inspiration to win the upcoming local government elections after visiting a Hindu temple in India alongside corruption-accused Ajay Gupta.
Reports suggest that this visit to India was a private trip, which Zuma’s party, uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK party), has refused to comment on. The Citizen has also reached out to MK party spokesperson Sifiso Mahlangu about this matter.
But this visit has been widely reported on by India’s major news outlets.
Prayers for Zuma
In a video circulating on social media, Zuma told reporters in Haridwar, an ancient City in the northern state of Uttarakhand, that he had come to India to catch up with his “friend” and “brother”, Ajay.
He said Ajay told him about a “man of God” that he wanted to introduce him to.
“I feel I am going to win the elections because the people of God have been with me… I am therefore happy that I am in this country, he (Hindu spiritual guru) has shown me what happens. I think he has been with me in the very heavy areas.
“I think he has given me some power, he has given me not just some power, but he has given me (inspiration) that I should once again take our people where they are supposed to be, and I am very happy,” he said.
Defence of the Gupta brothers
Zuma told the Indian media that South African authorities had gone after the controversial Gupta family because they did not “like the work” that they were doing with him.
Pretoria has made several attempts to bring the Gupta brothers back to South Africa to face charges related to state capture. According to reports, the Gupta brothers have now resettled in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), but they also have access to their country of birth, India.
“I was coming to a brother and friend of mine that was in South Africa for a long time. Because of some people in South Africa who were not happy with what they were doing in the country, that I was working with him as well, they decided to say he must leave the country, and that was a very unfortunate thing, and he went away, and they followed him even to the wrong places.
“I have not had the time to meet with him, so I decided that I must come,” he said.
Zuma further explained that his mission to take South Africa forward was stifled when he left the Union Buildings. But he told them he had started the MK party to continue where he left off.
Was Zuma fundraising for MK party?
Political analyst Ntsikelelo Breakfast told The Citizen on Wednesday that Zuma could have gone to India to look for financial support from the Gupta brothers.
“You win the elections by also having the finances because you also have to travel throughout the length and breadth of the country. These people that we are talking about benefited from his own government, they were getting tenders in the name of radical economic transformation,” he said.
Breakfast said he is not surprised that Zuma defended the Gupta brothers in the media briefing.
“There is no way that they can be beneficiaries of his own government and then he doesn’t defend them. He does not see anything wrong with that; that is why he had an issue with the Zondo commission, even though, paradoxically, he appointed [former chief justice Raymond Zondo] because at the time the commission was appointed, he was the president,” said Breakfast.
Old relations continue
Another political analyst, Theo Neethling, told The Citizen that it is now evident that Zuma still has a relationship with the Guptas.
“The close relationship between Zuma and the Gupta family during his presidency is well established. The Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture concluded that the Guptas exercised extraordinary influence over appointments and procurement in state-owned enterprises during Zuma’s administration.
“Zuma has consistently denied wrongdoing, while the Guptas have denied corruptly influencing government. The recent reporting documents a personal visit rather than any disclosed business dealings or political coordination. As of now, there is no publicly verified evidence that Zuma and the Gupta family have resumed the type of relationship that underpinned the state capture allegations,” said Neethling.
