Zuma ‘starting afresh’: I’m being punished for other parties I was a part of (VIDEO)

Jacob Zuma has suggested he is being punished for things he did while in power with the ANC, when he has started afresh with the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party.

The Constitutional Court (ConCourt) ruled this week that the former president can’t stand for election to the National Assembly until five years had passed since the completion of his 15-month contempt of court sentence.

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In an “address to the nation” published on Thursday, Zuma slammed the court’s decision and claimed it had stopped him from exercising his “freedom” and “democracy”.

“I have started a new party and I am starting afresh under the party I lead now, but I am punished for other parties that I was (part of) at some point,” he told JD Afrique, with a slight smile.

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Zuma questioned SA’s democracy, “how it operates, where it begins and where it ends” but said he would fight for “freedom”.

“I am going to fight for my rights until this country agrees that freedom must be a complete freedom. Not for some and oppression for others … I’ll continue fighting in different ways to convince everyone that I am right and my learned friends are not.”

He concluded his speech by urging South Africans to “take a stand to correct the wrongs of this country”.

WATCH: Zuma speak on the ConCourt’s decision

MK consults with Zuma

Speaking moments after the court’s judgment, secretary-general Sihle Ngubane said the party’s leadership would meet with Zuma to discuss how to proceed.

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“When we leave here, we will have a meeting as an executive. President Zuma will lead us on what to do from here onwards. He is still the leader of the party; he is in charge of MK party.

“The people of South Africa must relax, every direction that Zuma will give us, we will follow. He leads this party, he commands this party…he will be on the ballot,” he said.

Duduzile backs her dad

Reacting to the judgment, Zuma’s daughter Duzuzile urged MK party supporters to vote for it in next week’s elections.

She said a two-thirds majority victory would allow the party to “discard of the Roman-Dutch law and implement African law”.

Posting a picture of her father, she wrote: “We will make you president of the country and you don’t have to go to Parliament, you can Zoom…”.

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