Former South African president Jacob Zuma has expressed his desire to return to power to “fix things” that have worsened in the country since his ouster in 2018 such as rolling electricity blackouts.
Addressing a Nazareth Baptist Church congregation in Ndwedwe north of Durban on Sunday, Zuma said he wanted to “come back to fix things” because he was removed by the governing African National Congress (ANC) before his second term had ended, thereby leaving office before his work was done.
“The manner in which they (the current ANC government) have behaved has motivated me to want to come back because I want to fix things,” Zuma said.
He claimed that he was removed from power “because I was trying to solve problems experienced by the poor.”
President for nearly two terms, Zuma was recalled by the ANC in February 2018 at the height of accusations of alleged corruption in his administration in what the current regime of President Cyril Ramaphosa described as “a lost decade.”
Zuma, who is now aligned to the newly formed uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party, said electricity loadshedding was one of the issues the Ramaphosa administration had failed to deal with, and pledged that an MK-led government under his leadership would make electricity its key focus.
In addition to daily power cuts, South Africa is also grappling with shortages of water, rising unemployment, rising prices and high crime rate.
This is the clearest indication yet that Zuma would likely be the MK party’s presidential candidate during this year’s general elections.
