The Leader of Umkhonto weSizwe, Jacob Zuma, and South African Rainbow Alliance (SARA) leader, Colleen Makhubele have both slammed the Government of National Unity (GNU) as a betrayal of the people.
SARA, alongside the MK Party, has joined other parties under the newly-formed progressive caucus of parties, which wants the recent election results set aside.
Speaking during a media briefing organised by MK Party on Sunday, Makhubele accused the ANC of failing South Africans in the elections.
“Today is a sombre moment in our history. It is a truly defining moment for this nation. In the same light, we want to implore on the ruling party, the ANC to admit that whatever their intentions were for the 2024 elections and the so-called government of national unity (GNU), they must admit to this truth and this reality that things went horribly wrong for the majority of black people,” she said.
Makhubele added: “ Many South Africans though they were waiting for a great new start after the 2024 elections. It was buzzing. We came up with new political parties and young people were hopeful saying 2024 is our 1994. We all agreed that there were fundamental changes to be made in our society to address the issues of poverty, unemployment and inequality and governance. Little did we know that 2024 is the DA’s 1994.”
Makhubele added that the prison doors were waiting for some politicians who had been fingered in corruption, saying: “Things have gone horribly wrong for the politicians and the prison doors which are waiting for them because of this arranged marriage.
Zuma described the GNU as nonsense, saying that the political conditions had changed since the formation of the first GNU in 1994.
“They want to make us as a country at war and they are giving us this GNU. But there is no government of national unity in South Africa. What we have here is a white-led unholy alliance between the DA and the ANC of (President Cyril) Ramaphosa. It is sponsored by big business, and it's for the benefit of the markets and not the people,” he said.
As for the way forward, Zuma said the MK Party had instructed its lawyers to draft a letter of demand to stop the media from misleading South Africans on the GNU.
“We have asked our lawyers to write a letter of demand to the SABC to stop deliberately misleading South Africans by using terms like GNU or GPU [government of provincial unity] to refer to present sellout coalitions. This is nothing but a return of apartheid and colonialism,” he added.
The Star