MK disturbs ANC, but is it all hot air?

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula had enough egg over his face – after hastily cancelling a press conference about the court ruling on the registration of the uMkhonto weSziwe (MK) party – that he could have made an omelette.

Clearly Mbaks was hoping the court would deregister MK and that the party of former president Jacob Zuma would be excluded from contesting the elections.

There is still the court action where the ANC accuses MK of misappropriating its intellectual property by using the name of the organisation’s former armed wing.

That might go better for you, Mbaks…

The cases are an indication that the upstart party – which is gaining serious traction in Zuma’s home province, KwaZulu-Natal, and clearly has significant financial backing – has been giving the ANC sleepless nights.

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In marketing terms, you could describe MK as a “challenger brand” testing the status quo… or you might even consider it a “disruptor” because it so disturbs the existing equilibrium that it puts everything else out of sync.

So, is MK the political equivalent of Uber, the ride hailing app, or even Airbnb, the app that turned the accommodation business upside down?

It is certainly looking that way. But, appearances can be deceptive and, while MK is making a lot of noise in the media – conventional and social – with its clever Bell Pottinger-style campaign, it remains to be seen whether it can hurt the ANC at the ballot box.

Zuma has proved himself able to assemble the disgruntled and politically wounded around him with his vision of radical economic transformation and the ousting of “white monopoly capital”.

He and his supporters will have taken heart from the court decision and the ANC defeat will echo across the country for weeks to come. The ballot box battle may be another thing entirely, however.

ALSO READ: WATCH: ANC loses bid to deregister Zuma’s MK party