(25 May 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa – 25 May 2024
1. Wide pan of uMkhonto we Sizwe Party (MK Party) supporters singing
2. Mid of MK Party supporter in military uniform
3. Various of MK Party supporter holding a portrait of former South African President Jacob Zuma
4. SOUNDBITE (Zulu): Siboniso Gwala, uMkhonto we Sizwe supporter:
“So, uMkhonto is not only for the people of Natal, it is a calling for South Africa as whole, no matter who you are. Before guns arrived, we used to wield spears. Every man held a spear to protect their homes. So the spear is what will liberate this country. uMhkonto, sure case, will win the country, there is no doubt about that. We will deal with everything else as time goes. I can’t speak about the ANC because they have their own ideas, and I can’t speak on the EFF because they too have their own ideas, but uMkhonto will liberate black people.”
5. Wide of uMkhonto we Sizwe Party supporters
6. SOUNDBITE (Zulu): Silindile Mtambo, uMkhonto we Sizwe Party supporter:
“I’ve decided to give my vote to MK because we feel that our lives were much better when Zuma was the president before. We want infrastructure to improve and we need access to job opportunities for the youth. People are sitting idled falling victim to drugs and alcohol and the reason is because they are unemployed. We have hope that we will get jobs if Msholozi (Zuma) comes back to power. Viva MK, viva.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Eastern Cape, South Africa – 25 May 2024
7. MK Party supporters praying
8. SOUNDBITE (English): Des Van Rooyen, uMkhonto we Sizwe Party Interim Leader:
“Our candidate is one, that is comrade President Jacob Zuma. And that is why we are saying our masses, and we are working very hard that our masses must go out in their numbers and make sure that we win these elections with two thirds’ majority. And through that process we can then ensure that the only person that the South Africans want to see as the president of this country get elected when we go to parliament."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa – 25 May 2024
9. Various of Zulu warriors dancing during rally
STORYLINE:
Supporters of South Africa’s uMkhonto we Sizwe Party, also known as the MK Party, gathered for a big rally on Saturday in Kwa-Zulu Natal ahead of the critical elections on 29 May.
Another group gathered in Eastern Cape to pray for their party’s success.
MK Party was founded by former President Jacob Zuma, now 82, who once led South Africa’s ruling African National Congress party (ANC) but was forced out as its leader in 2017. He resigned as president in 2018 under a cloud of corruption allegations.
Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in prison in 2021 by the court for contempt for refusing to testify at a judicial inquiry into government corruption, and he cannot serve as a lawmaker until five years after that sentence is completed, the court said in a ruling nine days ahead of the May 29 election.
South Africa’s independent electoral commission that governs elections said Zuma’s image could remain on the party’s regalia, but his name would be removed from its list of proposed candidates. The court ruling doesn’t prevent MK Party from contesting.
Next week’s election could be South Africa’s most important in 30 years, with the beleaguered ANC facing the biggest challenge to its long rule since the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule in 1994.
AP Video by Sebabatso Mosamo, Nceba Ntlanganiso
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