Hartford on Duduzane Zuma: Jacob's cool-headed heir taking MK into battle

Jacob Zuma has handed his son Duduzane the deputy presidency of MK, and with it, control of the party's push into South Africa's municipal elections in just under three months. The move follows the expulsion of Duduzane's twin sister, Duduzile, whose tenure was marked by scandal, including sending men to fight for Russia and facing charges from the 2021 unrest. Where Duduzile was volatile, Duduzane projects calm and global polish, courting both MK's Zulu base and, increasingly, white business audiences, as seen on the opening day of last week’s BizNews conference in the Drakensberg. His rise comes as the ANC falters and rivals like the Patriotic Alliance and Inkatha eye the same disaffected voters..By Dirk Hartford.Jacob Zuma, the inscrutable, much-loved geriatric trickster of South African politics, might have delivered another masterstroke by appointing his 44-year-old son, Duduzane Zuma, as his first deputy President in his uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK).Duduzane’s appointment just two weeks ago came as Zuma snr seized back strategic and financial power from his acolytes in the chaotic collective which has swirled around him since MK’s founding. These responsibilities are now his alone.Zuma is many things, not least of all the leader of the third biggest political party in SA. He is also the preeminent “leader” of the biggest and most nationalistic (Zulu) tribe in SA. He is also the ghost that haunts the imploding ANC machine.SA’s municipal elections are less than three months away. These elections are taking place under dramatically different conditions than before. Not only because the ANC’s now totally failed state is felt most acutely and desperately at municipal level nationwide, but also because the March and March movement has stirred up a deep-seated genie whose nefarious effects are busy unfolding across the nation.The political parties that stand to benefit most from this genie are MKP, the Patriotic Alliance, Inkatha, and Action SA. The ANC and EFF, for different reasons, stand to lose the most. The DA and Freedom Front are likely to be least affected.In these circumstances, MK, without even doing much, is likely to gain the most, particularly in KZN, Mpumalanga and Gauteng where Zulus are concentrated. But also beyond its Zulu base as a result of both Zuma’s popularity and the sentiments stirred up by the March and March agenda.Duduzane Zuma has been charged to lead MK into the municipal election battle, and he has hit the ground running.Duduzane is the twin brother of Duduzile, who until recently was doing her father's bidding in MK. She is currently facing charges related to terrorism, incitement to violence and riotous assembly for her efforts during the July 2021 anarchy sparked by her father's arrest.Duduzile was also the key player behind sending 17 men, including Zuma clan members, to Russia for “military training”. They ended up disgruntled mercenaries in the Russian war effort against Ukraine and eventually were sent home.Duduzile was summarily expelled from the party two months ago for her sins, alongside party spokesman Nhlamula Ndhlela. This was the prelude to the leadership shakeup which led to Duduzane’s appointment by Jacob Zuma.Duduzile has wished her brother well in his new role, saying he has got what he always wanted. Her relationship with her father remains soundAlthough Duduzile and Duduzane are cut from the same cloth, they are different political animals in important respects. Duduzile is not a political animal by nature. She is essentially a Sandton kugel, thrust into politics through her relationship with her Dad after she got divorced.She is close to Julius Malema and her natural political home, like many of her young black professional contemporaries in Johannesburg, would have been the EFF. She is hot-headed and deeply enmeshed in the movers-and-shakers “scene”.Duduzane comes from the same milieu, but his adult life trajectory has been very different. He is a political animal. He even formed his own political party, the All Game Changers, saying he would contest the 2024 elections for President. This did not eventuate. With MK it could.Duduzane has by no means proved his mettle yet, but his early showings reveal a leader who knows who he is and what he wants. Other than Julius Malema, Floyd Shivambu and Geordin Hill Lewis, who else is there one can say that of from that generation?He likens MK to a hierarchical military-type organisation which will brook no ill discipline when speaking to his various regional leadership corps in Gauteng last week. He stresses mutual respect and unity in action and invites dissenters to leave and do their own thing - put up or shut up essentially.Of course, it helps that he is the deputy President of an organisation whose raison d’être is the Zuma family, and Jacob Zuma in particular. Like Gayton Mackenzie’s PA and Herman Mashaba’s Action SA.Top-down organisations like these are potent weapons in the battles for power. No pesky internal democratic processes to bother oneself with.While addressing the creme da la creme of SA white business at the BizNews conference in the Drakensberg last week, Duduzane seemed equally at home.He espoused that there were three economies in SA - the white capitalist private sector economy; the black public sector economy and the criminal economy (which Rob Hersov says is 20 per cent of the total SA economy).Obviously everyone present would have been thinking that if anyone in the country knows about all these economies, it's Duduzane himself. And they would be right.As his father’s and the Guptas’ point man for the last 20 years or so, Duduzane has no doubt learned a few things. Years ago he was preaching from Dubai that Port Elizabeth should be the next Dubai.He has been around the block of the global super elite, that's for sure. He knows Putin and other global leaders personally. He's in hock with the Guptas (who his Dad visited recently) and who are among the richest Indians on the planet.He is filthy rich himself with the kind of yacht and Dubai lifestyle behind his back that ordinary mortals might only dream of.He has been involved in business in Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Asia that few others can imagine.He's a young black man from South Africa who knows shit that only the likes of Black Coffee and Trevor Noah can even testify to If whites try and call him out on this, he knows only too well to remind whites of all they have stolen from his people.He told the BizNews conference that the white, coloured and Indian minorities must meet blacks halfway and forge a common future..Read more:.Why black voters trust the DA but won’t cast their ballots: Katzenellenbogen .He said he was an unabashed capitalist and saw no contradiction between that and MK’s programme of land expropriation, Reserve Bank nationalisation and free education.He said everything could be worked out, whether internally in MK or between MK and other forces, through discussion and negotiation.Unlike his sister, he projects a cool head.Duduzane is already resonating at least with the young black middle class. Given his position as deputy President of MK, and the kudos the Zuma name brings among Zulu speakers at the very least, his going to resonate much more going forward. Despite the fact that he can barely speak Zulu.If there is someone in black politics right now who understands the importance of speaking and cooperating with SA’s ethnic minorities on a joint capitalist project to “save” SA, it might just be Duduzane Zuma.Just saying…..all rights reserved..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox every morning on weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa's bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here.

Hartford on Duduzane Zuma: Jacob's cool-headed heir taking MK into battle

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