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The 81-year-old former leader was allowed to appear on electoral lists as an opposition candidate in May’s parliamentary elections. Unless the resolution is reversed, he may just be a kingmaker, or even a president.
By Lynsey Chutel
Report from Johannesburg
Jacob Zuma, who embarrassingly resigned as South Africa’s president in 2018, is now making his biggest comeback by running in next month’s general election with a new opposition party in the most sensible place on his list: the spot reserved for a party’s presidential candidate.
Zuma’s participation in the race is a major blow to the African National Congress (the party he once led) that has ruled the country since the end of apartheid three decades ago. N. C. et its leader, the country’s current president, Cyril Ramaphosa, is now struggling to regain acceptance with an electorate disappointed by a stagnant economy and years of corruption.
Zuma, 81, scored a primary victory on Tuesday when he allowed, through a court, to appear on the ballot, despite serving a criminal sentence for refusing to testify in a corruption investigation. On Wednesday, his party – uMkhonto weSizwe – published its list of national applicants with its call at the top.
His party, known as MK, only took shape last December, but it has already risen in the polls, gained ground in local elections and won several legal battles for the right to run in the May 29 election.
If MK does well in the parliamentary elections, Mr Zuma will get a seat in parliament. The new lawmakers will then elect the country’s next president. As an MP, Zuma would be eligible for the presidency, or he could simply play the role of kingmaker. if the ANC wins enough seats to form a government, as many political analysts predict.
“MK’s victory marks a crisis for the ANC,” said Bheki Mngomezulu, director of the Centre for the Advancement of Non-Racism and Democracy at Nelson Mandela University.
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