Embattled leader of the Rivers of Living Waters Ministries, Bishop Stephen Zondo, has revealed why he dumped the ANC for former president Jacob Zuma’s nascent MK Party.
After quietly deserting the ANC last year and remaining mum about the rationale behind his decision to jettison the party of Nelson Mandela, Zondo finally broke his silence this week.
He revealed during a wide-ranging interview with Sunday World Engage that he kicked Africa’s oldest liberation movement to the curb because it has reached a cul-de-sac with no new ideas to take South Africa forward.
Zondo, who is on trial for multiple cases of rape (see the story below), said it was Zuma’s speeches ahead of the 2024 national and provincial elections that persuaded him to join the fledging party.
Zondo said he was sold by MKP’s policies on education, particularly on how, under an MKP government, there will be no children of school-going age loitering the streets.
The MKP’s proposed military conscription for all teenagers after they finished matric was the cherry on top that convinced Zondo to cut his umbilical cord with the ANC and choose the MKP as his new political home.
Although Zondo didn’t play an active role in the ANC, he says he is now an active member in the MKP to ensure that the party achieves its ambitious majority to govern South Africa.
“I felt like the ANC people have reached the ceiling. There was nothing interesting anymore.
“You know, when we started, we were learning; we were excited, but after 30 years, somebody had just reached the ceiling, and politically, I wanted something more than that. I wanted to grow,” said Zondo.
“The one thing that attracted me to MKP the most is when JZ said our children must be forced to go to school and that education should be free. Our children have been jailed because they were fighting for education; others can’t even register because they owe certain money to the institutions of higher education and learning.
“Another thing that he said was that those who don’t want to go to school must be taken to a military camp and be trained for two years. We saw that during the apartheid,” the man of the cloth said.
“White people did that with their children; up until today, Boers still know how to use a gun; they know how to protect their own people.
“That would be the best discipline that we can do for the black child. (In MKP), I saw discipline, rehab, love for the country, for black children, protection, and security for our own country.”
In Zondo’s view, the conscription proposed by MKP is the best option available to instill discipline among the youth and curb drug addiction and other social ills.
By enforcing this, he added, what the church has failed to achieve through prayer will be achieved overnight.
But over and above that, Zondo went on, patriotism will be the biggest winner, which will set South Africa on a path to success.
Quizzed on how he believed Zuma would make a difference through MKP when he could not under the ANC when he was head of state, Zondo believes the circumstances are different.
He said Zuma did not have the full backing of the ANC, but still achieved a lot under those conditions.
“I think the ANC failed Zuma by not supporting him. See this nuclear energy thing that they’re talking about now; Zuma proposed it a long time ago, but they blocked him,” Zondo said.
“Zuma failed dismally to achieve many things when he was head of state because he never had a two-thirds majority to support him on this.
“But remember, free education came up with him. That’s why, in his term, he built two universities; after that, nobody has ever done that.
“The economy was doing better; we were competing with first-world countries; in fact, everybody wanted to come and invest in South Africa.
During his term at Union Buildings, a lot of people were succeeding in life, but since he left, people’s lives collapsed up until today.”
Zondo is not worried about Zuma’s age and the fact that he might not live long enough to see MKP take state power, saying he is planting a seed whose watering is the responsibility of all MKP members like him.
“I believe that he’s giving us an opportunity to do those things that he’s always wanted to do. I don’t think he opened MKP for himself, he opened it for us.”
