Why is saving the ANC so important to Zuma?

Imagine starting a political party in the name of a wing of an existing political party to try and rescue that party. That is what Jacob Zuma says he’s doing – supporting the MK party to save the ANC.

It sounds ludicrous, especially since the ANC expelled him.

So, you have this ANC which Zuma ran for a couple of years but still got ousted. He couldn’t grab it back despite its shockingly poor current leadership and so plans B, C and D were to start a new party, break a record for most evasive court tactics and getting into a car accident. One of them have to land I guess and it’s not looking like the latter two.

So why does he want this new party. He can’t contest the elections with the MK party – which has no presence in parliament but is already talking about change to the constitution. He can’t be president again either. But somehow, he’s set his sights on using the MK party to save the ANC.

I’d love to know what he believes the ANC needs saving from and whether he’ll admit to any contribution to developing whatever that is. Moreover, I’d love to know why he believes the ANC is worth saving. I’m sure there are plenty of reasons but I’d love to know what his are because I can’t imagine how starting a rival party saves the ANC from anything.

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What should have all our backs up is how much effort he’s putting into this compared to how much effort he put into building South Africa in nearly a decade at the executive helm, with the power of a full-on majority in parliament.

He’s like the gay man in the catholic church, the idiot in Oxford or the rugby player on the soccer field. I can understand the need to feel wanted but why put effort into belonging to a group that doesn’t want you? And it’s not like he’s being discriminated against on any prohibited grounds like race or gender.

Dude! What are you doing? Even FW de Klerk started a new party when he, eventually, accepted that his party was going in the wrong direction. And at no point did he want to leverage it to fix the National Party.

But here’s the rub; with political power and the ability to grab it, has Zuma ever really had any accountability? It doesn’t seem so. I suspect he’s caught onto that. And if he can hold onto that, he might not ever have to deal with any accountability. So, since he’s not getting it in the ANC, he’s got to create a new political home to get it. And as long as his people believe his ambitiously idiotic pursuit of saving the ANC, whatever that means, he still benefits from being associated with the ANC and all the impunity that comes with it.

I mean, who doesn’t want the ANC to be saved and made good? If he’s the only person saying it, he’s going to court a lot of influence, especially when even those in the ANC seem to be doing less than nothing to do it themselves.

They’ve handed their expelled cadre a get out of jail free card, literally. The guy must be strong if he’s able to rock a brand new political party in his mid-eighties having recently been released on medical parole.

If only Zuma would get over himself and start applying his skills to the benefit of South Africa. If he can sell his nonsensical dream of stealing the name of MK from the ANC to use MK to fix the ANC, imagine how good he could be at selling South Africa as an investment destination at Davos. Imagine how great he would be at getting the world on our side if he wanted to.

If only he was president once and did that for us, instead of breaking our stuff. This is why we can’t have nice things.

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