Jacob Zuma’s MK takes fight to ANC stronghold of Soweto in South Africa election

Mr Ramaphosa ousted Mr Zuma as president in 2018 after a vicious power-struggle, culminating with the former president ditching the ANC last December and making a fresh bid for power under the banner of MK.

South Africa’s highest court is yet to rule on whether Mr Zuma can serve as a lawmaker in the next parliament. The electoral commission argues that the constitution bars anyone who was sentenced to more than 12 months in prison from doing so.

Mr Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in 2021 after being convicted of contempt of court for defying an order to appear before an inquiry investigating corruption during his presidency.

But his lawyers say he is entitled to become an MP as his sentence was reduced to three months after Mr Ramaphosa released him from prison in what widely seen as an attempt to placate the former president’s angry supporters.

Senior MK official Visvin Reddy told the BBC that he expected the court to give its ruling this coming week. Even if it went against their leader, MK would still contest the election, with Mr Zuma’s face remaining on the ballot paper, he said.

“We’ll go to parliament, change the constitution, and bring him in,” Mr Reddy added.

MK has set itself the target of winning a two-thirds majority in the election, though this appears to be an overly ambitious target. An Ipsos opinion poll released last month put the party’s support at only 8%, external.

And in a worrying sign for Mr Zuma, a large section of the crowd left before he finished his lengthy speech, which dwelt on political history.

While the Ipsos poll put the ANC’s support at 40% (down from the 57% it got in the 2019 election) the Social Research Foundation (SRF), which has been tracking polls on a daily basis, says the governing party has seen a surge in support in recent weeks as it steps up its campaign, the local City Press newspaper reports, external.

SRF head Frans Cronje said that if elections were held now, there was a likelihood that ANC could pass the 50% mark.

“According to our computer projection in the past four weeks, the ANC has been squeezing the life out of the opposition parties,” he is quoted as saying.

On the campaign trail in KwaZulu-Natal, Mr Ramaphosa urged his party’s supporters to come out in large numbers to vote.

“If we win in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, then we’ve won because those provinces have the most people,” he was quoted as saying at the rally.