Former South African President, Jacob Zuma has said he will support the new Umkhonto We Sizwe (MK) party, named after the former paramilitary wing of the African National Congress (ANC) during the apartheid struggle.
In a statement read by his daughter, Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla at the Ipeleng Community Center in Soweto, Gauteng, on Saturday, the former ANC president and MK member said the new political formation had his approval to register with the SA Electoral Commission (IEC).
"Today, my mission is only to announce the way forward. The formal launch of the MK party and the announcement of its interim leadership and party lists will be done in the early part of 2024," Zuma-Sambudla read on behalf of her father, as quoted by local media.
Zuma served as South Africa's head of state from 2009 to 2018 before he was forced from power due to corruption charges, which he has been fighting ever since.
The former president was sentenced to 15 months in prison in June 2021, after refusing to testify before a commission investigating financial corruption and nepotism during his presidency. He began serving his sentence in July 2021, but was released on parole two months later on medical grounds.
Last November, South Africa's Court of Appeal ruled that the release was illegal and ordered Zuma to return to the KwaZulu-Natal correctional facility.
In early August, Zuma was pardoned almost immediately after returning to prison from his medical parole. The turnaround was prompted by a special pardon program announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa's government, which pardoned 9,499 inmates, including Zuma, in an effort to reduce the prison population.
Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) was the paramilitary wing of the African National Congress (ANC), founded by Nelson Mandela in 1961 to fight against the apartheid regime in South Africa. It was labeled a terrorist organization by the white minority government and banned until 1990. The MK was disbanded in 1993 after the end of apartheid. Jacob Zuma, the former president of South Africa, was a member of the MK and served as its intelligence chief.