The Jacob Zuma-led uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK Party) has slammed the ANC and DA for alleging that it was successful due to ethnic mobilisation.
Nhlamulo Ndhlela, the MK Party spokesperson, said these comments in the modern age ignored the dangers of involving tribalism in politics, citing the ANC and IFP bloodbaths in the early 1990s and the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
He said the MK Party’s success was merely a signal of punishment from the people of KwaZulu-Natal to the ANC for constantly failing to provide proper service delivery.
He said unemployment, poverty, loadshedding, and the high cost of petrol and food thrived under the leadership of the ANC.
“If political support in KZN was purely about tribal lines, for instance, why has the IFP, which has been politically active in KZN since 1976, not won or won 100% of the vote?” Ndhlela asked.
He said there were no tribalism comments made when the Eastern Cape supported the ANC under the administrations of former presidents Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki.
Zulu tribalism
“The same DA racists who maimed, tortured, imprisoned, and even murdered black South Africans and who remain unaccountable are not called racial tribalists for supporting the apartheid-era National Party.”
His comments came after ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe, who was at the national results operation centre in Midrand, said he was flabbergasted that the MK Party had, within a short time, surpassed the EFF.
He added that Zulu tribalism had a strong influence on this and asserted that tribalism was not sustainable in politics, implying that if this were the only factor driving the party’s success, the hype would soon fade.
Ndhlela said these comments undermined the thinking capacity of Zulu people, also insinuating that they could only vote under tribal pressure, therefore undermining their political agency and legitimate political choices.
“This recklessness and stupidity follow similarly offensive remarks from the so-called ANC Youth League president, who disparagingly suggested that Zulu people vote along tribal lines.
“Furthermore, the slow-thinking President Cyril Ramaphosa also described the July 2021 riots in KZN, which followed the illegal and unlawful incarceration of president Zuma and tragically resulted in over 500 deaths, as ‘nothing but ethnic mobilisation’.”
