MK party strongly condemns the reckless and thoughtless tribal-infused statement by both the ANC and its impending coalition partner, the Democratic Alliance
30 May 2024
MK party unequivocally denounce the obnoxious and toxic remarks made by Gwede Mantashe of the ANC, supported by Helen Zille of the DA, which characterize the electoral success of the MK party in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) as a product of "Zulu tribalism." This deeply disrespectful and insulting perspective not only undermines the political agency of the Zulu people but also dismisses their legitimate political choices as mere tribal affiliations. Such divisive rhetoric portrays the Zulu people as non-thinking and sheep-like, following an outdated narrative that is both dangerous and offensive.
This recklessness and stupidity follow similarly offensive remarks from the so-called ANC Youth League President, who disparagingly suggested that Zulu people vote along tribal lines. Furthermore, the slow-thinking Ramaphosa also described the July 2021 riots in KZN, which followed the illegal and unlawful incarceration of President Zuma and tragically resulted in over 500 deaths, as "nothing but ethnic mobilization." This narrative, pushed by the current ANC leadership, dangerously ignores the historical lethality of tribalism, as evidenced by the bloodbath between the ANC and IFP in the early 1990s and the horrific genocide in Rwanda in 1994.
The MK party views these statements as reflective of a leadership in crisis, which, rather than addressing the real issues facing our nation such as unemployment, poverty, and loadshedding etc, resorts to scapegoating and blame-shifting—a typical behavior of a failed administration attempting to divert attention from its own shortcomings by invoking tribal sentiments. Adding insult to injury, Helen Zille of the Democratic Alliance—a party that is nothing but a modern iteration of the apartheid-era National Party—has, like ANC, also labelled the MK party's success in KZN as "Zulu tribalism".
This common mentality, foolish and non sensical as it is, is not surprising as it is an open secret the two are on the verge of forming a coalition.