How anti-constitutionalists Zuma and Sisulu are using UCT’s brand to enhance credibility

“H.E. President Jacob Zuma at the inaugural Mama Albertina Sisulu Memorial Lecture held at the UCT Graduate School of Business,” ran the text of a tweet posted by the uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party on 31 October.

It was the caption to a set of photos showing a pensive-looking Zuma seated alongside former Cabinet minister Lindiwe Sisulu.

Zuma’s unexpected appearance at UCT’s business school was part of a day-long event to mark the launch of the Sisulu Foundation for Social Justice. It earlier featured addresses by Sisulu and Zuma on Robben Island before proceedings shifted to UCT for the foundation’s “inaugural memorial lecture”, slated to be introduced by new UCT vice-chancellor Mosa Moshabela — who did not ultimately attend, says UCT.

The event blurb, sent out ahead of time and dutifully reproduced in full by IOL, which has served as a useful mouthpiece for Sisulu in the past, teased Zuma’s presence: “Foreign dignitaries, politicians, former presidents and numerous anti-apartheid activists will attend this landmark event which starts at 6pm on October 31, at UCT.”

The university, in other words, is likely to have been made aware of Zuma’s involvement ahead of time.

The official press release for the lecture containing the same text solidified the UCT connection, with the UCT Faculty of Health Sciences’ spokesperson listed as a contact for media inquiries alongside the Sisulu Foundation spokesperson.

Faculty of Health Sciences Dean Lionel Green-Thompson was also quoted in the release as paying tribute to Albertina Sisulu’s work as a nurse.

UCT spokesperson Elijah Moholola told Daily Maverick: “The Faculty of Health Sciences at UCT was approached to co-host the lecture, established to honour Albertina Sisulu. The legacy of Albertina Sisulu as a primary care nurse who epitomised servant leadership resonates with the faculty.”

He added: “It is usual practice for UCT faculties or departments to host or co-host events by external entities on the basis of, among others, the relevance to the activities and operations of such faculties or departments.”

Moholola said the involvement of the UCT Graduate School of Business was limited to its venue hire.

“The Albertina Sisulu Foundation [its real name is the Sisulu Foundation for Social Justice] worked through the university’s Conference Management Centre to book and fully fund the venue and related logistical arrangements.”

Despite UCT Vice-Chancellor Moshabela being listed in the programme as giving the welcome to the lecture, Moholola said this did not happen.

“The UCT VC neither addressed nor attended the lecture. He was in fact out of town on the evening,” said Moholola.

He emphasised, however, that it would be “usual practice” for the VC “or any member of the office of the VC to address events co-hosted on campus by either faculties or departments.”

Robben Island hosts rambling Zuma address

A few hours before the lecture held at UCT, Robben Island had played host to the official launch of Sisulu’s foundation.

The CEO of this new entity is Mphumzi Mdekazi, Sisulu’s long-term right-hand man, who has been implicated in wrongdoing around tenders at the then Department of Water and Sanitation, and was also accused of effectively controlling Sisulu’s ministry.

According to the draft of the foundation launch programme, representing the political side of things as speakers were Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi, as a “political son to Albertina Sisulu”, and Zuma.

Zuma’s keynote address lasted just short of an hour and had the same rambling and conspiratorial character as many of his public utterances in recent years.

In it, he accused “Western powers” of seeking to deliberately “weaken the ANC”, including by assassinating leaders.

“Indeed, that organisation, which they wanted to be weak: in 30 years, they weakened it. It is weak now,” said Zuma.

At several moments the 82-year-old MK leader sought help from his audience in finding the words he was seeking.

“What do you call where people keep money? Banks, yes,” said Zuma at one point.

“Some stay, what is it, next to the city? Townships, yes,” he said at another.

But the nub of his address came with the following words towards the end, where Zuma was lamenting the fragmentation of the political landscape in South Africa.

“I don’t know how many political parties we have [now]. What will that help us with? The more political parties we have, the more the majority reduces from us, which we could utilise now to have a two-thirds majority and correct things in this country.”

The two-thirds vote share is, simply put, Zuma’s obsession. In the same week as his appearance at Sisulu’s foundation launch, News24 reported on leaked recordings from an MK meeting at which Zuma warned that if the party did not develop tighter internal discipline, the two-thirds majority target would remain elusive.

The significance of the two-thirds threshold: it allows the Constitution to be changed — or, as per the MK party’s manifesto, torn up.

Sisulu and Zuma share disdain for constitutional values

While there is no disputing the heroic contribution of Lindiwe Sisulu’s parents, Albertina and Walter Sisulu, to the fight for democracy, their daughter has in recent years revealed herself to be profoundly at odds with the constitutional values of a democratic South Africa.

In a now-notorious op-ed published on IOL in January 2022 headlined “Hi Mzansi, have we seen justice?”, then Dirco minister Sisulu accused the South African judiciary of being stocked with “mentally colonised Africans”, and posed the question: “If the law does not work for Africans in Africa, then what is the use of the rule of law?”

The piece caused consternation, including among former comrades, and prompted then Chief Justice Raymond Zondo to take the virtually unprecedented step of holding a press conference to express his outrage.

Since her ousting from Ramaphosa’s Cabinet following a series of provocations towards the President, little has been heard from Sisulu.

The Russian government, however, reported in September that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had met with Sisulu in Moscow and held a discussion “focused on current issues pertaining to further strengthening the traditionally friendly relations between Russia and South Africa”.

Whether these talks were carried out with the knowledge of Dirco is unclear. Sisulu was in Moscow at the time to participate in the inaugural awards ceremony for the Leo Tolstoy International Peace Prize, an initiative of the Russian government launched in 2024, transparently designed to launder its reputation amidst the ongoing war with Ukraine. (Some of Tolstoy’s descendants have expressed horror at the use of the famous writer’s name in this context, since Tolstoy was an avowed pacifist.)

IOL dutifully reported on the African Union’s bagging of this “prestigious” and “historic” prize, and quoted UCT politics head Professor Zwelethu Jolobe as describing the receipt of the award as a “significant moment for both the organisation and the continent”.

Zuma by no means a spent force in SA politics

Zuma wants to be president of South Africa again — or, at the very least, to install a proxy as president to serve his decrees.

He has made no secret of this. His chosen vehicle is the MK party, the most undemocratic political formation in the democratic history of South Africa. No internal contestation for positions is allowed; Zuma simply anoints office-bearers. No conferences are held to discuss policy; Zuma simply dictates policy.

The Government of National Unity is beloved by the media and the middle classes, but there are millions of disaffected South Africans to whom it has meant not one crumb of improvement in their daily life, and may never do so.

The astonishing return of Donald Trump in the US proves what can happen when an already aggrieved population is told, day after day, that things were better under a former president — that the economy was performing better, inflation was lower, unemployment was lower.

If this message could reach fertile ground in the richest country on Earth, imagine what it can do in South Africa — where if you earn as little as R1,000 per month, you are in the most privileged 50% of the population.

As we have previously written, you only have to spend a little time in Parliament to understand MK’s modus operandi. It is a brazen project of historical revisionism, in which MK MPs relentlessly use their platforms to send the message to the public that daily life was better and easier under the presidency of Zuma than under Ramaphosa — and that the number one enemy of progress in South Africa is the Constitution.

Zuma, MK and allies like Sisulu seem likely to take advantage of any platform granted to disseminate this anti-constitutional narrative. Institutions like UCT, if not careful, could be seen as helping to bolster their credibility. DM