Newly appointed uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK Party) second deputy president Tony Yengeni says the problems of South Africa can primarily be blamed on leadership.
Speaking in Durban on Thursday after being named to the MK Party’s leadership, Yengeni said many leaders “love themselves more than they love their people and country”, but former president Jacob Zuma was different.
“Comrade Jacob Zuma is different. He still stays in his rural village in Nkandla, where he originates from. Throughout his adult life, through struggle and sacrifices, he has demonstrated his undying love for his people and country,” Yengeni said.
He said Zuma, even “at his advanced age, has now decided not to retire but to continue the struggle for social and economic freedom and prosperity of his people until the last of his days.”
In a statement titled My Brief Journey with President Zuma, Yengeni traced his long political and personal association with Zuma, dating back to the late 1970s when they both served in the ANC’s armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe, during exile.
He recounted how, after the 1982 Maseru raid in which 42 people were killed, Zuma was sent by then-ANC president Oliver Tambo to Lesotho to help organise the mass burial and manage the political fallout.
“I watched him work, calm, methodical. That is Zuma, quiet, resourceful, reliable, trustworthy,” Yengeni said.
Their relationship, he said, extended into the democratic era when Yengeni served as ANC chief whip in Parliament and Zuma was deputy president. He recalled that both became embroiled in the so-called arms deal controversy, saying both he and Zuma were unfairly targeted.
“I was convicted in the so-called card discount case, which was politically motivated and thoroughly shameful in the manner it was handled. They even sent me to prison. Guess who came to visit me at Mama’s Berry Prison? Comrade Jacob Zuma, deputy president of the ANC,” Yengeni said.
He added that Zuma’s solidarity “cut very deep.”
He said when Zuma later faced his own legal battles, including charges in the arms deal, it showed “how the justice system can be manipulated and abused,” describing the drawn-out trial as a serious travesty of justice.
“Justice delayed is justice denied. The fact that the trial drags on today is a serious travesty of justice,” he said.
Yengeni defended Zuma’s 2007 ANC leadership victory at Polokwane, saying: “That conference was not about politics only; it was about ensuring that the ANC remains the champion of the aspirations of the poorest of the poor.”
He said when the Constitutional Court sentenced Zuma to prison in 2021 without a trial, he was among “thousands of outraged masses” who descended on Nkandla in protest.
“Even when Msholozi later formed Umkhonto we Sizwe, our bond endured,” he said. “When the ANC took disciplinary action against him, Msholozi called upon me to represent him before the Disciplinary Committee. I readily agreed. In moments of crisis, a true leader turns to those he trusts most.”
Yengeni added that he remains a regular visitor to Zuma’s homestead in Nkandla. “We sit together, we deliberate, we debate the crises our country is facing, searching for ways to resolve them,” he said.
“This struggle for social and economic emancipation led by MK and other black political organisations is not about me or yourself or anyone for that matter. It is about the heart and soul of the land of our ancestors and its people. South Africa and its people must and will be free.”
Politics
