Gayton McKenzie: Putting a lid on MK risks sparking a ‘Zulu Spring’
Patriotic Alliance President Gayton McKenzie writes that South Africa is currently in danger of unleashing what might be called a "Zulu spring".
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By Gayton McKenzie, President of the Patriotic Alliance
As a country we are currently in danger of unleashing what might be called a "Zulu spring".
Whatever one might think of the MK Party and its leader, Jacob Zuma, no one can escape the fact that it won 45% of the vote in KwaZulu-Natal and took 58 seats in the National Assembly.
We are hearing dismissive comments comparing MK to COPE, which exploded on the scene in 2009 only to no longer exist in anything but a few municipalities. Perhaps MK will not be sustained, but no one knows that yet. MK is not just about Zuma – it is an expression of a mostly Zulu constituency that feels it has had enough of the status quo and wants something to change.
If nothing changes, and that voice of discontent is silenced, it will surely find other ways to express itself. We should not be too enthusiastic to find out what that looks like.
There is this panicked attitude, now, that MK needs to be kept out of government at all costs, and this is also fuelling the Democratic Alliance's bid to enter into some kind of governance arrangement with the ANC.
That might seem appealing on the surface, especially since we keep getting sold the line that "the markets wouldn't like an MK government" and "the markets like the idea of a DA-ANC coalition". But big business, corporations, global interests and the billionaires who have funded the DA and other parties in this country are not the ones who were on the ballot paper.
Business should focus on business and stay out of politics. They are meddling in something they would be better off steering clear of.
Sidelining MK and the millions who voted for it would be a fundamentally undemocratic attitude. It would be particularly rich coming from anyone in the ANC, which has been trying to pass through legislation at municipal level that the largest party in a council should get the most MMCs and the mayor.
Any arrangement in KwaZulu-Natal that relegates MK to the opposition will require the ANC and DA to work with the IFP and either the EFF or NFP to reach 41 seats. MK would be left dangling on their 37 seats.
That may be all well and good, but MK has been popularising the allegation that it was robbed of a majority in the province, and every time more "evidence" of vote rigging emerges (rightly or wrongly), the feeling of victimisation and wrongdoing only escalates.
We are already dealing with deep-seated resentment and anger around the perception that Jacob Zuma has been ill-treated by the ANC and the country at large. We couldn't leave well enough alone, and had to keep poking the Zuma bear – and now we act amazed when it bites.
We can't so easily dismiss the voices of those who voted for MK and believe the pot will not boil over if we try to put a lid on them.
Whatever coalitions are formed in the days ahead must acknowledge the importance of the highly concentrated MK vote in KwaZulu-Natal and recognise that a near-majority there has spoken. They have not just spoken, they have shaken the foundations of this democracy, driven the ANC well below a majority and ushered in a new era of coalitions in this country.
For the rest of us to then want to cynically exploit that at MK's expense will come at a price tag that we may not wish to pay, and that price tag may be heftier than anything "the markets" can do to us.
Let's also not forget that MK contains within its ranks the ANC's old soldiers and masterminds of military intelligence. To this day their influence and control of the military and the police run deep.
Where will "the markets" and global interests be if these characters decide to act out an African-style coup d'état? Who will save us then?
The DA has offered to "rescue" the country from "doomsday coalitions", but where, in all fairness, will the DA be on that day?
I pray that my concerns are unfounded and I ask that God be with us through this difficult time.
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