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MK party circles the drain of history while the GNU gets on with it

Marianne Thamm
By Marianne Thamm
18 Aug 2024
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List-rigging, expelled MPs – Jacob Zuma’s political project is in chaos, yet still it is taking the SABC to court.

The reason Jacob Zuma’s Fong Kong uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party has a problem with the SABC using the term “government of national unity” (GNU) is essentially about the notion or definition of consensus, agreement or accord.

You would think MK has more pressing matters at present, considering Zuma’s political project appears to be circling the drain of history. But here it is taking the SABC to court for using the term GNU in reports.

The party, in court papers, has argued that the term is “misleading” and “unconstitutional”. The public were being lied to about their government, MK has charged.

The SABC argued in turn that MK was being a vexa­tious litigant and that it was not for MK to tell it how to do its job. And it has asked for costs.

Consensus is not a thing in MK, clearly.

What with ongoing purges and the summary dismissal of 18 “insurgent” MPs six weeks after being sworn in, as well as allegations of list-rigging and fraud – this is an episode of House of Cards on tik, all before breakfast.

It’s chaos, with some of the expelled MK members now reportedly sharpening their blades, metaphorically speaking, hopefully. When there is no consensus this is what one must do. No point going to a knife fight carrying a tissue.

If you feel like a one-eyed Amsterdam pigeon six tequilas down on a Saturday night in terms of following the plotline here, you’d be forgiven.

Legal kitty runneth over


The legal fees kitty must be overflowing, as MK has been embroiled in countless court matters since its “surprise” success in the last election and the swearing in of its 58 MPs.

The list is basically a State Capture roll call with a revolving door of sorts, depending on which way the wind is blowing from Nkandla.

The objection to the use of GNU to describe the GNU has to do with MK’s anti-democratic tunnel vision and Zuma’s “Big-Man-With-Big-­Favours” status in the party.

In the Statement of Intent (signed in a 15-minute “comfort break” requested by the EFF’s Floyd Shivambu as MPs were being sworn in) it was clauses 18 and 19 that spiked MK’s blood pressure.

These set out that the notion of “the established practice of consensus” would be applied to decision-making and where no consensus was possible “the principle of sufficient consensus shall apply”.

Where parties fail despite reasonable attempts to resolve disagreements a decision would be taken by parties representing 60% of seats in the National Assembly. Those parties who disagree would be able to do so formally, recorded for the history books.

Just what it is that MK is trying to achieve by bending reality to fit its warped and unhinged sense of what constitutes a government is unclear at present. Perhaps daggers at dawn is what they feel would settle it all.

MK Jacob Zuma. (Photo: Waldo Swiegers / Bloomberg via Getty Images); MK party supporters. (Photos: Luba Lesolle / Gallo Images); Drain photo: Midjourney AI


Permanent casuals


MK spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela, who happens to be the nephew of Tom Moyane, the former disgraced South African Revenue Service commissioner, has said he engaged with the 18 “recalled” MK MPs “in a civil manner”.

He said they had all been aware beforehand that their appointments had not been permanent and that they were temporary casuals, placeholders if you will, for uBaba, who was going to be stealth-bombed in like impeached judge John Hlophe. Meanwhile, Zuma’s daughter, Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, has positioned herself as the new matriarch of the Nkandla dynasty and the behind-the-scenes enforcer in the party.

All this while shocking unemployment figures have been released with the only glimmer of hope an economic upturn in 2025.

Claire Bisseker, writing in the Financial Mail, highlighted that as GNU ministers hit the ground running the bond market rally shaved 100 basis points off the government’s borrowing costs.

Also, a straight 130 days of uninterrupted power has led to expectations that business conditions in six months are more favourable and the recovery of losses back to the year’s start.

“In sum, it’s not difficult to sketch a much more positive outlook for the economy over the rest of the year and in 2025 on the back of greater political certainty and accelerated structural reforms, courtesy of an energised GNU, as well as the expected deceleration in inflation and projected interest rate cuts,” she wrote.

We can feel it coming in the air


The role of opposition parties in the National Assembly is to fight for what they promised their voters they would bring to the table. The DA, during the past six administrations, deployed the law successfully to enforce accountability to all voters. The EFF deployed mostly insults and brawling.

There is far too much damage to clear up after Zuma’s chance at steering the Good Ship SA.

Been there, done that.

Crumbling infrastructure, hospitals and schools, indifferent government departments, slow land reform, empty promises and full pockets. Now is the time for everyone to pull finger for the greater good and not just the Don of Nkandla. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.

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