By Zukile Majova
Political Editor
Former president Jacob Zuma was greeted by empty seats at the Puma Stadium in Emalahleni, in Mpumalanga for uMkhonto Wesizwe’s (MK) final election rally.
It was the third gathering of the party that was poorly organised and with a low turnout of supporters.
On Saturday, hundreds of MK party supporters waited all day for Zuma to attend a rally in Hammarsdale, outside Durban in KwaZulu-Natal, but Zuma did not arrive.
Before that, just hundreds instead of thousands of MK supporters attended the party’s march through the streets of Durban. The march allegedly turned into a shambles when about half the marchers grew tired of waiting and went to the beach instead.
The three poorly organised events follow the MK’s impressive public spectacle when it filled up the 37,000-seater Orlando Stadium.
It later emerged, however, that hundreds of buses transported people to the event to create an illusion that Gauteng had embraced the MK party.
The party, which is popular in parts of KZN, is under pressure to show that it is not a regional organisation but a fully fledged party with support across the country.
But MK rallies have had low turnouts in the Free State, the Eastern Cape and Limpopo.
Mpumalanga was previously understood to be one of the provinces that would support the MK party, especially after it performed better than the IFP and EFF in its by-elections debut in the province.
But that was in the Govan Mbeki Local Municipality in the Gert Sibande district, a completely different region from the Emalahleni, Nkangala district that hosted the Sunday rally.
Both the ANC and the EFF concentrated their campaigns in the Nkangala district, the area is predominantly an ANC and EFF region.
At the height of its popularity, pre-election polls suggested the MK party would get 23% of the vote in KZN and up to 17% of the national share.
That means around four million voters would support the party, making it bigger than Julius Malema’s EFF.
But a power struggle inside the MK party has taken the sting out of its campaign.
Zuma expelled Jabulani Khumalo, the founder of the party, creating divisions in the party and disrupting its election programme. The party is now without a number two at the top and is often leaderless when the 83-year-old Zuma is unable to make it to a public gathering.
It is now not clear just how much impact the MK party will have on the national election, although it is still regarded as a kingmaker in KZN.
Pictured Above: MK Party leader Jacob Zuma looking down as he stands in front of the few hundred Mpumalanga supporters of the party.
Image Source: X
