South Africa’s graft-infected former president Jacob Zuma held a huge election rally on Saturday, vowing to return to power despite a legal challenge to his candidacy.
More than 30,000 fans packed the Orlando Stadium in Soweto to hear their champion promise black South Africans more jobs and better wages.
“When we reach the final destination no one will be poor or unemployed, we will do things for all of us,” the 82-year-old said to cheers.
The elderly party leader looked tired as he arrived at the stadium, flanked by MK fighters in military fatigues and traditional Zulu warriors with spears and leopard skins.
But he rallied as he stepped forward to speak, leading the crowd in riotous song and speaking for more than an hour before launching into another chorus.
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Between 2009 and 2018 Zuma served as the fourth president of South Africa in the post-apartheid era and leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC).
However, he left office under the shadow of a corruption investigation and was jailed in 2021 for contempt of court, a decision that sparked a wave of riots that left 350 dead.
He has now formed a new party, uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), to challenge his ANC successor Cyril Ramaphosa for the presidency in the May 29 general election.
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In South Africa, a president is chosen by newly elected MPs, but electoral authorities say he should be disqualified from running because of the conviction.
The Constitutional Court was asked to rule on the matter after a lower court ruled in Zuma’s favor, but Zuma’s supporters plan to press ahead independently.
There are concerns that if Zuma, still popular with many of his fellow Zulus, is declared ineligible at this late stage, there could be another round of unrest.
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But the party, named after the ANC’s armed wing during the anti-apartheid struggle, will remain on the ballot and could cut Ramaphosa’s vote.
“We see him as our Moses from the Bible, the one who led the Israelites over the sea,” said 55-year-old job seeker Nomthandanzo Nhlapho.
Observers do not credit MK with much support outside Zuma’s home KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa’s key electoral battleground.
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But at the stadium in Soweto, the symbolic heartland of the ANC’s support, speaker after speaker said the party was on track for a two-thirds super majority.
The crowds had started to gather by 8.00 am. and by 3:30 p.m., when Zuma finally began to lead them into song, the 36,000-capacity arena was packed.
“MK will change everything. We’re taking them out!” said Sharon Mahlobo, 47, a former ANC voter who will no longer speak the party’s name.
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Timothy Magawana, a 58-year-old MK fighter and ultramarathon runner, told AFP he had come from Durban to show his support.
The coastal town is 500 kilometers (310 miles) from Soweto, but the party had started the transport from Zuma’s Zuma heartland to ensure a large turnout.
Some speakers responded to the idea of uniting the many peoples of South Africa, but Zuma’s speech was given only in Zulu, the language of most of his supporters.
Many of the music acts that entertained the crowds were big names from KwaZulu-Natal, and many of the supporters had been bussed in from long distances.
But in a sign of what the ANC may have in store at the polls this month, one of the musicians was not Zulu and also a high-profile ANC defector.
Eric Nkovani, better known to fans as Papa Penny and disco king Tsonga, was a major adviser to the ANC division until this week.
Zuma welcomed him to his new party in a raucous ceremony, decking him out in a fancy cape covered in MK logos over his gold sequin outfit.
Late liberation leader Nelson Mandela’s ANC has ruled South Africa since the advent of democracy in 1994, but three decades later it faces a tough electoral test.
Corruption scandals of the kind that dominated the Zuma era have battered the party, as have murders reaching 84 a day and unemployment at 32.9%.
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