Jacob Zuma, former South African President, states he will not vote for ANC.

Jacob Zuma, the former president of South Africa, has announced that he will not support the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and is forming his own political party. Zuma, who served as president from 2009 to 2018, stated that it would be a betrayal to campaign for the ANC under President Cyril Ramaphosa. His new party, named uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), shares its name with the former armed wing of the ANC. In a provocative statement, he declared the start of a new "people's war" using the ballot instead of bullets. The uMkhonto we Sizwe fought against the apartheid-era government and disbanded in 1993 before the ANC came to power. Zuma, who claimed he is unwell, had his daughter read a statement at a news conference expressing his disappointment with the current state of the ANC, accusing it of being unrecognizable from the liberation movement he once revered. He criticized the party's leaders and pledged to "rescue" it. Zuma deemed the current government a failure and described President Ramaphosa as a puppet of white monopoly capital. Instead of campaigning for the ANC, Zuma announced his intention to vote for the newly formed MK party. He emphasized the people's thirst for freedom and called for socio-economic justice and equality. Zuma's time as president was marred by corruption allegations, and he ultimately stepped down in 2018 under pressure from within the ANC. In 2021, he was imprisoned for contempt of court but later released on medical grounds due to prison overcrowding. The ANC is set to face highly contested national elections next year, seen as the most competitive since it came to power in 1994.