Former president Jacob Zuma. Photo: Fani Mahuntsi/Getty Images
ANC Youth League (ANCYL) president Collen Malatji has called former president Jacob Zuma “ungrateful” and a school “dropout” who benefited from the movement more than any president in its history.
In a wide ranging interview with the Mail & Guardian, Malatji also labelled the newly formed uMkhonto we Sizwe party – endorsed by Zuma over the ANC – a “tribalist” formation that would only harm like-minded parties such as the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) in this year’s general elections.
“Zuma is ungrateful. The ANC made him a president even when he was a grade two dropout. It taught him how to read, write and analyse. If I was Zuma, I would be protecting the ANC. No man has benefited from the ANC more than Zuma,” said Malatji.
Zuma did not respond to the M&G’s attempts to contact him, but MK party spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela said Malatji’s comments were those of a “misguided young person”, and added that the lives of young South Africans were in “far better hands” during Zuma’s administration than the current one.
Two weeks ago, Zuma shocked ANC members when he announced that he would not vote or campaign for the governing party in the coming elections, and would instead be supporting the newly formed MK party. Justifying his choice, he said that the ANC led by President Cyril Ramaphosa was not the organisation he once knew.
Zuma also vowed he would ensure that the ANC – which he has been a member of for 62 years – would not attain the outright majority needed to govern the country.
Malatji reiterated that the move to endorse the MK party by Zuma would affect the IFP rather than the ANC, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal.
“IFP must be worried about Zuma, it’s them and Zuma who mobilise through tribal lines. Zuma will take the votes of tribalists like him who did not vote for the ANC as a political party because of its values but those who voted for the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal at the time because they believed it was led by a Zulu person,” Malatji said.
“He will not take votes from the ANC, he is going to take votes from those that were never ANC. The ANC believes in nation-building and does not believe in tribalism, it believes in uniting all tribes.”
Ndhlela refuted the allegations of tribalism, saying the MK party was non-tribalistic, non-racial and did not discriminate.
“We as MK party will fight not by the bullet, but by the ballot at the next elections,” he added.
Criticism of the party, said Ndhlela, was from those who were fearful of its “might and momentum”.
Also reacting to Malatji’s statements, IFP national spokesperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa said his party did not take Malatji seriously. He said Malatji was using the IFP to deflect attention from the “fast collapsing” ANC and its failures.
“Collen suffers heightened levels of delusional political confusion whose limits know no bounds as he desperately seeks attention and relevance in the South African body politic. The IFP remains solid, unshaken, and united in its onward and upward growth trajectory,” Hlengwa said.
Malatji said the ANC had been nursing Zuma for too long, and that no ANC president had caused more damage to the party than the former head of state.
“It is good that he is showing his true colours of being a tribalist, organising according to tribal lines and sympathy. We are saying good riddance and he was a burden to the ANC. He must continue with his political party. Zuma is a former leader of the ANC who has caused more damage than any other president of the movement.”
Malatji said the ANC would fight Zuma in court for using the name of its armed wing as the name for “his” party.
He said uMkhonto we Sizwe had a strong history and that its heritage should not be hijacked for “opportunism” led by a criminal network that almost collapsed the country.
The National Executive Committee (NEC) is expected to discuss the MK party and Zuma at its next sitting, but Malatji said there was no need to even discuss Zuma as he had already expelled himself from the party.
“We are popularising a dead snake, he is a dead snake that expelled himself. The moment he joined or formed another political party, the constitutions of the ANC automatically expelled him. It does not need a meeting or anybody, it’s an automatic expulsion. He expelled himself because he went outside the values or the principles of the ANC.”
Malatji said that ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula should not give Zuma the “attention he craves”, but should focus on making sure that the ANC reclaims the trust of society and wins the elections.
Zuma is expected in Mpumalanga on Saturday to address a mass meeting by the MK party, a week before the ANC’s January 8 celebration.