Zuma plays political games

Former president Jacob Zuma may seem to have won a significant victory for his uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party when it contests the 29 May general election.

But he is unlikely to get another shot at the Unions Buildings, where he claims to have “unfinished business”.

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This after the Electoral Court on Tuesday upheld his appeal against the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC’s) rejection of his candidacy.

Zuma may be doing victory laps in his firepool after hearing the good news and now seems to be eligible to become a lawmaker.

He was disqualified by the IEC from contesting a seat in parliament because of his contempt of court sentence for snubbing the Zondo commission.

Of course, Zuma’s challenges have given the MK party a boost. The party has been enjoying much publicity from the court cases it has been involved in – and it has been using each one as a mini-rally to garner support.

All this has allowed the MK party to make more than a dent in the voters’ consciousness. What is also concerning is that the ANC has created its own opposition in the MK party, which has even stolen the identity of its armed wing.

However, the question now is: What is Zuma’s game plan?

It would be very naïve of him and his MK party to expect that he will get anything more than just being an ordinary parliamentarian.

No matter what happens, even if the MK party can have Zuma as its presidential candidate, there’s no way the South African constitution can allow him to serve more than two terms.

This can only happen if there’s a two-thirds majority to amend the constitution – which is highly unlikely. Unfortunately, this is not Brazil and Zuma is not President Lula da Silva.

What is evident is that Zuma is playing politics to gain popularity and to use South Africans as pawns in his supposedly political chess game with President Cyril Ramaphosa.

There’s even a bigger chance that Zuma might not even take up the seat in parliament after the general election, provided that the MK party gets one.

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For it is highly doubtful if Zuma will forfeit his perks as a former president of the country. What Zuma is doing has nothing to do with him wanting to serve the country and has everything to do with him disrupting the ANC.

Because if we look at it, he has been president of the country for nine years. What does he expect to do now after he’s previously had the chance at the top job?

Games with the emotions of voters are being played here and the ANC shouldn’t have wasted its time entertaining this. It should have viewed the MK party for exactly what it is, a reactionary KwaZulu-Natal party that will not even challenge the Economic Freedom Fighters.

Because when Zuma leaves MK, it will fade into obscurity – even the Inkatha Freedom Party will show it flames. So, the MK party is not so much of a threat to the ANC as everyone is saying.

What’s funny is that Zuma is doing what he said was wrong to do as a disciplined ANC cadre. In his time, he accused those against his presidency of being ill-disciplined and having lost their political consciousness.

So at the moment, it seems his political consciousness has slipped through the net because all he is doing is being hypocritical after the ANC has shielded him from a number of scandals over the years.

Zuma is trying to make as if he is better than Ramaphosa while, in truth, you will find they are both the same.