Former South African president Jacob Zuma has announced that he will not support the African National Congress (ANC) in the upcoming elections and is establishing a new political party.

Zuma, who served as the country's president from 2009 to 2018, expressed that campaigning for the ANC under the leadership of current President Cyril Ramaphosa would be a betrayal.

Zuma's newly formed party is named uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), which translates to "spear of the nation" and shares its name with the former armed wing of the ANC.

In a provocative statement, Zuma declared the beginning of a "new people's war," emphasizing a shift from using bullets to ballots.

At a press conference in Soweto, Zuma, citing health reasons, had one of his daughters read a statement on his behalf. The statement acknowledged the ANC as a once-great liberation movement but expressed sorrow over its perceived decline. Zuma pledged to remain an ANC member but asserted that the party had transformed into an unrecognizable entity.

According to Zuma, certain leaders within the ANC were acting in an "un-ANC manner," prompting his intention to "rescue" the organization. He predicted the ANC's defeat in the upcoming elections, attributing it to a "deliberate plot to kill the ANC" and criticizing the current government's performance.

Zuma accused President Ramaphosa of being a "proxy of white monopoly capital" and claimed that the "ANC of Ramaphosa" had declared war against black professionals and intellectuals.

"I cannot and will not campaign for the ANC of Ramaphosa".

Doing so would lead to failure and a government by "sell-outs and apartheid collaborators", he said.

Instead, he would vote for the newly registered MK party, he said.

"No force can defeat the people's thirst for freedom," he said.

Mr. Zuma's statement also referred to the "enemies of our people operating among us" and said, "There can never be reconciliation without socio-economic justice and equality".

During the apartheid era, Mr Zuma was an anti-apartheid activist and spent a decade in jail as a political prisoner.

His time as president was controversial and included multiple allegations of corruption. He resigned in 2018 amid significant pressure from within the ANC and was succeeded as president by Mr Ramaphosa.

He was jailed in 2021 for contempt of court after refusing to testify before a panel probing financial sleaze and cronyism under his presidency. His jailing sparked protests and riots that left more than 350 people dead.

He spent two months in prison before being released on medical grounds. That release was later ruled illegal, but he did not return to prison due to overcrowding in the system.

The ANC faces national elections next year viewed by many as the most competitive since it came to power in 1994.

Wow

Noted