Zuma set to seize and resist

FORMER PRESIDENT 'OUT TO UNDERMINE CYRIL AND CONTROL ANC, GOVERNMENT'

- Eric Mthobeli Naki

Former president Jacob Zuma is biding his time, waiting for the government of national unity to fail, so he can pounce and wrest power over government and the ANC from a weakened President Cyril Ramaphosa.

However, while both veteran politicians want to pursue the idea of ANC renewal for different reasons, it will be a futile exercise, because the party is a lost cause, say experts.

University of KwaZulu-Natal politics lecturer Zakhele Ndlovu said Ramaphosa's talk without taking much action gave no hope that his ANC renewal project would bear fruit. He had not fulfilled his many promises to unite and renew the party, with the ANC remaining divided under his leadership.

On the other hand, uMkhonto weSizwe leader Zuma's idea of reuniting the ANC and restoring it to its former glory is only a remote possibility, said Ndlovu.

Zuma's strategy - of recruiting certain ANC members to join his uMkhonto weSizwe party (MK) with the aim of ultimately destroying the ANC and re-establishing a new one - was nonsensical.