Is the MK takeover of KZN so bad?

Former ANC treasurer-general Matthews Phosa tells a story in his book of how laissez-faire the other members of former president Jacob Zuma’s ANC top six had become in their positions as leaders of the ruling party that they agreed to have a meeting at Zuma’s house in the presence of the three Gupta brothers, who were the kingpins of state capture, as the Zondo commission has showed.

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He tells of a meeting he attended with the former president at the Gupta’s Saxonwold compound and how he encountered former Eskom and Transnet CEO Brian Molefe walking around the house.

And who can forget the story of how current secretary-general of the ANC Fikile Mbalula found out he was being promoted to sport minister in May 2009.

Mbalula was allegedly summoned to the same Saxonwold compound that Phosa talks of and was told of his promotion by the Guptas.

The man who, as president, gave the Gupta brothers so much power to run the country on his behalf has a political party.

And if social media conspiracy theories are to be believed, his uMkhonto weSizwe party might soon be running South Africa’s second most populous province after Gauteng.

In this era of artificial intelligence (AI) that can make credible images of public figures giving speeches they never gave and spread political lies via viral posts on various internet platforms, it has become almost impossible to fact check some of these posts.

For instance, local social media was this past weekend abuzz with the news that the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal was ditching the Inkatha Freedom Party and the DA as partners in the provincial government and embracing former president Jacob Zuma’s MK party as their new partners.

Allegedly, provincial premier Thami Ntuli is on his way out and Willies Mchunu, who recently defected from the ANC to MK, will make a return to the premier’s office.

This could all be figments of the imagination from some brilliant AI manipulator who even went as far as faking voice notes and posters of an urgent ANC press briefing on the issue.

But after a week in which the DA has displayed an extraordinary show of petulance and Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber announced a free visa access deal with Ukraine before President Cyril Ramaphosa had attached his signature to it, it would not be such a shocker if the ANC did, in fact, ditch the DA in KZN and, eventually, nationally.

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The state capture years might seem like a distant memory to some, but the Zondo commission’s final report on the matter only came out two years ago, in June 2022.

Those implicated have not even all had their day in court and those charged haven’t been fully prosecuted as yet.

And the parties chosen to lead South Africa out of the state capture years are playing “mine’s bigger than yours” games.

This can easily lead to the return of the chief protagonists to the centre stage. Ramaphosa will probably sign off on the Ukraine deal and Schreiber and the DA will be proved right.

But if the government of national unity collapses, it will be because the ANC or DA couldn’t see past their egos.

Would it be the end of the world if MK took over KwaZulu-Natal and maybe, eventually, became full partners in the national government of national unity?

There is no way of knowing that, but the country remembers quite vividly what it means to have a minister of finance who stayed in office for just a weekend.