South Africa: How Zuma's MK Party Ruthlessly Outmanoeuvred the ANC in KZN

3 June 2024
Daily Maverick (Johannesburg)
analysis By Chris Makhaye

The MK party's rise in just six months from nowhere to winning the most votes in KZN in last week's general elections is unprecedented in SA politics. This is how it went down.

After the general elections last week, KwaZulu-Natal emerged with a new political reality.

It is unclear who will become provincial premier after the uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party came from nowhere to win most of the votes in the province, just under six months after it was formed.

The MK party won more than 45% of the vote in KZN while the province's previous rulers, the African National Congress (ANC), managed just 18%.

Nationally, the ANC garnered just over 40% of the vote, while the MK party got 14.58%, finishing in third place, behind the DA with 22%.

How did the MK party pull this off in such a short time?

The main reason can be summed up in two words: Jacob Zuma. The former president and current MK party leader remains a popular figure despite his controversial political career.

During campaigning, Zuma and the MK party said they wanted to scrap the Constitution and replace it with "unfettered" parliamentary sovereignty. The party said it would expropriate all land without compensation and transfer ownership to the people, under state and traditional leadership custodianship.

Zuma's detractors said he and the MK party were pandering to Zulu ethnic nationalism to win support in...

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