South Africa's surprise election challenger is evoking the past anti-apartheid struggle
Former South African President Jacob Zuma is the wild card in Wednesday’s election for Africa’s most advanced country
DURBAN, South Africa (AP) — The 59-year-old Dumisani Ndlovu has voted in every South Africa national election since he and the rest of the Black majority finally won the right 30 years ago. He has faithfully supported the liberation party-turned-ruling party African National Congress every time.
That ends on Wednesday. In a way, nostalgia is calling. Ndlovu in this week's election is turning his support to the man, Jacob Zuma, whose career spanned from the liberation struggle to the presidency before falling out with his ANC colleagues and reemerging last year with a new political party.
That MK party, named after the ANC's old armed wing, shows how the 82-year-old Zuma is leveraging the past to rally South Africans' support against the ANC, which he himself once claimed would rule until “Jesus comes back.”
Here in the heartland of Zuma supporters, the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal, cab driver Ndlovu has embraced the unlikely comeback of a political survivor after years of corruption allegations, criminal charges and prison. Even being barred from this election as a candidate for Parliament over a recent conviction hasn't blunted Zuma's influence.
