Address to the nation by Jacob Zuma, as read out on his behalf, and in his presence, at the MK Party press conference on Sunday, 16 June 2024
Fellow South Africans it is not by coincidence that I address you today on June 16 2024 on the 48th commemoration of the June 16 massacre when young children stood up to the enemy and said “enough is enough”.
Today, we say the same.
You will also remember that I last addressed the nation exactly six months ago on 16th December 2023 in Soweto, where I gave seven reasons why I had come to the difficult decision that I would campaign and vote for Umkhonto we Sizwe and not for the sell-out ANC of Ramaphosa. I called for the unity of the Left and all Progressive Forces.
On 16th December 2023 I said “I call on all South Africans to join me in taking this important step and vote for MK Party and any other progressive parties which seek total liberation and the return of our land to its rightful owners, the African people.
The task ahead requires young and old leaders alike to pull in the same direction. No single organisation can pull us out of this present crisis. We require the same spirit which saw us defeat the monster of apartheid.
I later indeed campaigned on the ticket of asking patriotic and freedom loving South Africans to follow my lead and vote for Umkhonto we Sizwe and other progressive parties in the 2024 elections.
Before anything else, let me take this opportunity to thank all of the more than four million South Africans who voted for Umkhonto and all progressive forces who are fighting for the return of our land. Siyabonga. Realiboga. Baie Dankie.
As we speak, the newly formed progressive caucus of parties commands close to 30% of the seats in the National Assembly.
We strongly believe that if it was not for the massive electoral fraud and other irregularities committed while the IEC was watching that number would be far higher, and perhaps in the majority.
But even after the daylight robbery, to achieve almost thirty percent in the National Assembly puts us in a very strong position to fight on for the total economic liberation of black and African people.
It has never happened in a democratic South Africa that there is a united opposition commanding more than a 100 seats in the national assembly, in a situation where there is no single party with more than 40% of the vote. We must applaud the people of South Africa for making history.
Because of you, People of South Africa, this country will never be the same. True freedom is around the corner.
The return of the land has been delayed by those who robbed us of our votes and who are now working with those who took our land using violence.
It is also the first time that a progressive formation such as Umkhonto we Sizwe alongside its progressive caucus partners will be the official opposition.
On December 16th 2023, I stated that we had started an initiative with several progressive parties aimed at creating a United Patriotic Front. For various reasons that project was delayed until after the elections. I am therefore glad to announce not only will Umkhonto we Sizwe form part of the progressive caucus, but we will soon also be announcing the formation and a programme of that patriotic front of progressive forces who are both inside and outside of parliament.
While the progressive caucus must carry out the struggle inside parliament the patriotic front must also do so outside of parliament. And amongst other organs of civil society who subscribe to the return of the land and the dignity of the African people.
Our message to the heroes of June 16 is, the centuries old struggle for the return of our land will take a new shape starting today 16 June 2024.
This united effort is necessary because the 2024 election has also resulted in the consolidation of right wing and reactionary forces who are opposed to economic freedom, racial economic transformation, racial equality, and land repossession led by the ANC of Ramaphosa and the Democratic Alliance, which is the replacement of the racist National Party of Hendrik Verwoerd, BJ Vorster, PW Botha, and FW de Klerk.
Their regimes could not have lasted even one day without black collaborators such as Ramaphosa. Today all of those sellout forces have been replaced by the ANC of Ramaphosa, which has taken us back to 1948.
Fortunately, millions and millions of our people have realised that the Road to Freedom starts with the removal of the ANC of Ramaphosa. They did so either by voting for the progressive parties, or by refusing to vote at all.
All we need to do is to convince the last six million people, who have not realised that voting for the ANC of Ramaphosa is to invite racism, inequality, hunger, landlessness, and poverty, back into the lives of Africans.
For the record, Umkhonto we Sizwe is of the strong view that the 2024 elections were rigged and that the results announced by the IEC are not a true reflection of the will of the people.
Before and after results, we have presented concrete evidence to the IEC showing widespread irregularities in the voting process and the voting system.
It has all fallen on deaf ears. We’ve also tried all peaceful means to address our grievances, but all in vain.
We have even approached the highest court in the land, but it rejected our pleas without even giving us a hearing, and relying on technicalities, while the democracy itself is being destroyed.
As another form of peaceful protest, we have also voiced our dissatisfaction by boycotting the first sitting of the National Assembly last Friday. All these are constitutionally allowed methods of peaceful protest.
We shall not tire from using peaceful means because we do not believe in resolving problems through violence, despite the fake narrative of our enemies.
We call on all our supporters to be patient, even in the face of the most serious provocation by the institutions of democracy, which are supposed to be independent and unbiased.
The most frustrating treatment was when 26 political parties launched almost 600 objections which were publicly addressed in the evening of Saturday, the 1st June 2024, at the IEC results centre.
Literally within minutes of making our cries for fairness and asking the IEC to delay the declaration of the results, until our objections were addressed, the chairperson of the IEC told the media and the country that the IEC was going ahead to announce the results as planned, and as if nothing had happened.
This was despite the fact that the law allowed the IEC another four days to attend to our issues.
It is therefore our strong view that the premature declaration of the results was totally illegal.
The only reason given by the IEC for rushing was to please the markets. It is the people who voted and not the markets.
The constitutional mandate of the IEC is to serve the voting public and not the markets.
We took this issue to the Constitutional Court for its attention, but to add insult to injury, the Constitutional Court missed the whole point, and failed to address the key issue of illegal declaration of results.
Instead, the Constitutional Court concerned itself with the evidence of irregularities, but that was not the issue we brought to them. That issue belongs to the Electoral Court.
It is irrelevant whether our objections were valid or unvalid. The issue is that the IEC was not entitled to brush us aside and to proceed with rushing the declaration of those results, before looking into the allegations made on behalf of millions of South Africans, the voters. The court failed to address this matter.
We also complained that the boycott would result in a National Assembly not reaching the minimum number of 350 members, as referred to in the Constitution. That issue was not addressed.
Surprisingly, the Constitutional Court said the matter was not urgent and the court did not have jurisdiction. That means we should have gone to another Court, even though the first sitting of parliament was only a few days away.
It simply does not make sense at all to deal with such serious issues by resorting to pure technicalities. That is the same court which was prepared to give urgent and direct access to Judge Zondo to bypass the criminal courts and to sentence me to go to prison without trial.
Now the same court is not prepared to give direct access to test whether the IEC acted wrongly in rushing the declaration of those election results, and possibly having an illegal government for the next five years.
That can never be called justice. Justice for Zuma should be the same justice as justice for all. It is also not good enough to be called a democracy. It can only be called a dictatorship of the ruling party and its institutions.
In recent times the highest courts of Zimbabwe, Kenya, Malawi and even the USA have listened to election challenges because they respect democracy and fairness.
They did not use escape routes or technicalities such as agency or jurisdiction. To do so and a violation of human rights. So much for the so-called best Constitution in the world.
It cannot be the best if it has eyes to choose who does not deserve justice. Such a legal system must be changed as soon as possible. It may be suitable to Roman and Dutch people, but not for us as Africans. We must do away with Roman Dutch Law. We shall not be discouraged but will continue to fight on.
We have instructed our legal team to take any steps possible both inside of South Africa and internationally to ensure that justice is done.
We cannot allow a situation where millions of votes have been stolen. The legal team will report on the possible avenues which are available.
Why are we always expected to accept what is clearly unacceptable?
We say, enough is enough. In the end, justice WILL prevail. We have already waited for almost 400 years for our freedom, and we are almost there.
We call on our people to demand to know what happened to their votes. They have the right to know.
We will therefore at the right time call on our people to demonstrate their dissatisfaction against all these injustices peacefully, in the streets, in the courts, and even in parliament, until our grievances have been addressed.
We have now launched a new Electoral Court challenge and given that court the evidence we have collected. We shall also participate in the case lodged by the ATM in the Electoral Court. We shall leave no stone unturned.
Regarding the current political situation, we need to educate our people that there is no Government of National Unity in South Africa. There is a white-led unholy alliance between the DA and the ANC of Ramaphosa. It is sponsored by big business. It is the benefit of the markets and not the people.
It must be crushed before it finds its feet.
The media is also selling the story of a Government of National Unity when they know that there is no such thing.
I know because I was part of the leadership which introduced a GNU in 1994.
We have asked our lawyers to write a letter of demand to the SABC to stop deliberately misleading South Africans by using terms like Government of National Unity or Government of Provincial Unity to refer to present sell-out coalitions. This is nothing but a return of apartheid and colonialism.
We know that the private media has to serve its masters, but the SABC belongs to us.
It has no right to feed our people with lies, and to pursue narrow agendas at our expense. We shall seek an urgent meeting with the SABC board and management to raise this issue and, if necessary, educate them on the correct political terms which are appropriate.
If they do not listen to the people, then the people will march to SABC to demand the truth.
If there is a Government of National Unity, why is its founding documents only signed by Mbalula and Helen Zille?
Let it be clear to all our people that at 40% the ANC of Ramaphosa had a choice to listen to the people, and team up with those fighting for the total liberation of our people and the return of the land, or team up with those who stand for racism, white supremacy, backwardness, land theft, Zionism, and other ends.
They chose to go to bed with the racists. By doing so the ANC of Ramaphosa has defined itself outside progressive forces of change. It has defined itself against the majority of the oppressed.
The ANC of Ramaphosa must be treated as part of the problem and no longer as part of the solution. However, the door is always open for the real ANC to be welcomed back in the progressive fold.
I think I need to repeat this so its clear.
I state: By doing so the ANC of Ramaphosa has defined itself as outside the progressive forces of change.
It has also defined itself against the majority of the oppressed.
The ANC of Ramaphosa must be treated as part of the problem, and no longer part of the solution.
We also want to dispel the DA/ANC propaganda that the MK Party is part of those that are against the constitution. In everything we do we follow the Constitution. However, we believe that the Constitution must be amended to allow for the return of land, and to give a much bigger role to Parliament, which is made up of democratically elected representatives of the people, rather than unelected judges.
Section 44 of the Constitution gives the National Assembly unlimited power to amend the Constitution. Parliamentary sovereignty, which is practiced in many democratic countries, is a normal prevalent form of government.
I promise to address the nation soon after the meeting with the leaders of the progressive forces, when we shall deliver a detailed battle plan for the next few months or years until we finally win back our country from the enemies of progress and economic freedom with the new apartheid regime of Steenhuisen and all his black sell-out puppets led by Cyril Ramaphosa.
Unity in action is the simple clarion call. We can no longer afford to be divided when the enemy is uniting against the people.
For that reason, we wish to announce that after taking legal advice Umkhonto will soon occupy its seats in the National Assembly.
We shall continue to raise the issue of the rigged elections, even inside the house, while at the same time we shall intensify the court actions and other constitutional methods outside.
The protest will continue in other forms. There are many battles ahead, including a total overhaul of the currently biased voting system itself and the biased IEC.
Together with the progressive caucus and the people we must fight the sellout deal of the DA and their puppet Ramaphosa by any means necessary, and within the law.
There is no time to rest. Those of us (in the form of President Zuma) who are still members of the ANC will continue to use any space still available inside the ANC to expose the agents of White Monopoly Capital who want to take our country back to apartheid. They will be defeated. But if they push us outside, we must find other political homes to continue the struggle for liberation.
As founders of Umkhonto we Sizwe just said on 16th December 1961:
There comes a time in the life of any nation where there remains only two choices, to either submit, or fight.
I need to repeat that: There comes a time in the life of any nation where there remains only two choices. You either submit or you fight.
That time has now come to South Africa. And that time is now.
We shall not submit and we have no choice but to hit back by all means, within our power, in defence of our future, and our freedom.
I thank you.
END OF STATEMENT
Transcribed by Politicsweb.
