Former president Jacob Zuma has promised to give traditional leaders more powers than politicians to rule South Africa.
Durban — Former president Jacob Zuma has promised traditional leaders that should the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) win the coming elections, it will give them more power than the government to rule the country.
Speaking in Durban – where the MKP and ANC went to court on Wednesday over the use of the uMkhonto weSizwe trademark of the ruling party’s now-defunct armed wing – Zuma told supporters the ANC was “challenging God” and “they will never win”.
Zuma said when the MKP won, it would change the Constitution by replacing pro-white policies with African traditional policies.
“Luckily amakhosi and monarchs, who are the owners of the land, concur with us.
“We want them to rule their land. The government should not be above everyone. “It (government) should govern on behalf of us, the owners of the land led by traditional leaders,” said Zuma.
The MKP has placed Zuma as its number one candidate, meaning if the party wins the elections, he could become state president.
However, the IEC said on Thursday that Zuma, who has already served close to two terms as head of state between 2009 and 2018, is not eligible. This was because of his criminal record from the 15-month prison sentence he partially served in 2021 for contempt of court.
Zuma said traditional leaders had seen their power reduced to nothing.
“For the traditional leaders not to rule did not only bring us poverty; it brought us crime and all other misguided laws.
“There are very bad policies that you would not want to talk about in front of children. We are going to change all that,” he said.
He said the monarchs and amakhosi would reclaim their power because “this is their land”.
“There should be a platform where amakhosi would meet to discuss how this country should be governed. Amakhosi should assign us (politicians) to do this and that, and after we have done that, we should return to account to them.
“Amakhosi will tell us how to govern their people, and the government should be a runner of amakhosi, as the government cannot be above amakhosi,” he said.
He said this was the case in England, where the monarch was above the government and prime minister.
“England does not have a president; it has a prime minister, whose government is appointed by those above him.
“If we are not united behind this, we might as well go to live in the sea because it would mean we are not real Zulus, Xhosas, Vendas. It would mean we are something else. The land belongs to us and we should rule it,” he said.
He said the MKP would put an end to the poverty that prevented black children from succeeding in education: “We want our children to be more clever than anyone, and be manufacturers. We want South African-manufactured aeroplanes... manufactured by South African youth.
“That is why we are going to force the young people out of alcohol because I don’t want anyone to be an alcoholic,” he said.
Zuma was involved in a car crash on Thursday night between Gingindlovu and Eshowe.
He had been travelling in a convoy from Nkandla to Eshowe to campaign for the MKP. It was reported that Zuma was not hurt.
A 51-year-old driver who was driving the car that allegedly crashed into Zuma’s convoy is expected to appear in court on Tuesday.
Sunday Tribune