Zuma defeated the ANC – Mbalula

Even though it did not get enough votes to rule alone, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula says the only person who defeated the party in this year’s election was Jacob Zuma.

Mbalula was speaking in an interview broadcast live on his X account on Tuesday.

The ANC got 40% in the last elections, making way for a multi-party governance system in South Africa for the first time since 1994.

According to Mbalula the formation of the MK party was responsible for the ANC’s dismal loss in the May general elections.

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“The EFF, DA, and all-small political parties combined did not defeat the ANC. Jacob Zuma did by coming out of the ranks of the ANC,” Mbalula said.

Despite being launched in December last year, Zuma’s MK party was the official opposition in parliament and was the third largest party in the country after the DA.

One of the MK party’s demands for a coalition was that President Cyril Ramaphosa be removed as the ANC’s leader for an ANC-MK party coalition to work. The coalition would also include the EFF.

The ANC rejected this proposal and instead formed a Government of National Unity (GNU).

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Quoting ANC veteran Oliver Tambo, Mbalula said the ANC would be responsible for its own death.

“It is the ANC that will kill itself, and Zuma has done that in 2024,” he said.

EFF’s ‘last-ditch attempt’

The EFF made a last impassioned appeal before President Ramaphosa finalized his cabinet to consider working with the EFF and not the DA.

But Mbalula said the EFF was no better than the DA.

He described the ANC as the only political vehicle to transform the lives of poor South Africans.  

The Citizen had previously reported that the MK party was yet to have an electoral conference. Currently, the party is operating on an interim structure.