Former President Thabo Mbeki has slammed former president Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe breakaway political party, saying it was being run and led by the same people who tried to destroy the South African Revenue Services (Sars).
Mbeki was addressing the annual lecture at the University of South Africa (Unisa) on Wednesday night, where he also slammed his former deputy president for trying to make a contradicting statement to the public about the MKP.
In December last year, Zuma announced that he would contest the elections and campaign for the MKP and that he would not vote for the “ANC of Ramaphosa”, though he insisted he would remain a member of the African National Congress.
The ANC’s stance on Zuma has been that he expelled himself from the party.
Mbeki said it was a contradiction and a fallacy that anyone could be a member of the governing ANC, campaign for another party and bay for the ANC’s removal from power.
Mbeki said Zuma was wrong on his stance and it made no sense.
“I am saying in that context of what is happening in the country, how do we understand the breakaways. Take the MK party.
“You can’t say I remain a member of the ANC, but I am going to support a party which is going to campaign to defeat the ANC. That doesn’t make sense. One of those two things is wrong,” said Mbeki.
He said the MK party was led by the same people who tried to destroy Sars.
“In terms of these breakaways from the ANC take that breakaway, you can understand that. It is led by the same people who tried to destroy Sars. This is exactly the same people.”
Earlier on Wednesday, the MK party youth league announced during a media briefing in Johannesburg that they were putting Zuma’s name forward as the presidential candidate for the party.
They made threats, saying there would be no elections on May 29 if Zuma and the MKP were not allowed on the ballot.
Political parties submitted their lists to the Electoral Commission (IEC) last Friday.
There will be a period of objection on some of the candidates on the list of parties.
The matter of the ANC vs MKP on the use of the name uMkhonto weSizwe, will be in the Electoral Court next week after the governing party lodged an application over the trademark of MK.
IOL