(Reuters) – South Africa’s Umkhonto we Sizwe party said on Sunday it would join an alliance of smaller opposition parties in parliament in a bid to defeat the ANC-led coalition government.
The ANC and its biggest rival, the white-led, pro-business Democratic Alliance, agreed on Friday to work together in a coalition dubbed a “national unity government”, a step towards change after 30 years of ANC rule.
Reading a statement on Zuma’s behalf, spokesman Nhlamolo Ndlela told reporters that the MK’s party would join the coalition called the Progressive Rally, which includes the Marxist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the center-left United Democratic Movement.
This coalition controls nearly 30% of the seats in the National Assembly, Ndlela said, sitting next to Zuma – who was suffering from a cough but answered questions after the statement – and the leaders of a number of small parties.
He said, “This united effort is necessary because the 2024 elections also resulted in the unification of right-wing and reactionary forces that oppose economic freedom, radical economic transformation, racial equality, and land restoration.”
Ndlela said the MK decided to take his seats in the National Assembly after receiving legal advice, and that he would continue to raise his allegations of election fraud in Parliament and the courts.
The Independent Electoral Commission said the elections were free and fair.
Zuma also criticized the unity government – which includes two small parties, the socially conservative Inkatha Freedom Party and the right-wing National Alliance – as “senseless” and an “unholy white-led alliance”.
President Jacob Zuma: The National Unity Government is a false, nonsense, meaningless and misleading unity
“Gno bullshit… If I were a journalist, I would write a very long article to help people understand that it was fake.” pic.twitter.com/FJUKLDgYyq
-Mr. TshweuMoleme (@TshweuMoleme) June 16, 2024
