The leader of the MK Party, former President Jacob Zuma, has narrated how colonialists used coup d’etat and rebels to claw back African countries that got independence and could not be controlled.
Zuma says the colonialists funded rebels to stage a coup d’etat and install governments that listened to them and implemented their agenda.
South Africa’s former president spoke in Durban on Monday night during a gala dinner hosted by the MK Party to celebrate its first anniversary.
Since 1960, Africa has experienced over 200 coups, with an average of 20 successful coups each decade between the 1960s and 1990s. Of these, 109 were successful, and 111 failed. Military factions rather than rebel groups led the majority of these coups.
While some coups involved rebel forces, such as the 1960 attempted coup in Ethiopia led by General Mengistu Newaye, the specific number of coups initiated solely by rebel groups is not readily available.
“But because those who came to oppress felt they could not leave the continent of Africa unattended to, they created all very clever things and systems and everything. For example, instead of saying to us here is your country, take it back, they didn’t say so. They said you cannot rule these countries because they said you don’t know how to run countries. The fact that they found us running our countries was not an issue,” Zuma told the gathering.
After that, Zuma said they then started funding rebels to stage coup d’etats to maintain their grip on policies and the economies of the freed countries.
“They still took the economy into their hands and told you what to do, what not to do. Some of the leaders who fought (for freedom) were angry about this, and they started saying sorry, we want to do it as we want. When they realised that was happening they bought others of our own to create what was called the coup d’etats.
“Who, in other words, were given every power to overthrow the government of the people that they have fought for. They created the kind of fellows who were mad in their heads. Those who were too clever, some of them were given even soldiers for that matter to overthrow and rule and therefore take Africa back to where it came from,” Zuma added.
On Sunday, before the gala dinner, the party hosted its rally at the Moses Mabhida stadium, which was filled despite the scorching heat and other internal challenges.
The party accused the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) of sabotage after trains were unavailable to transport supporters to the stadium.
Internally, the MK Party’s youth league and Injenje Yabe Nguni council voiced their anger regarding the treatment of traditional leaders from the North West who were invited.
That was after they were not given wristbands to access the hospitality suites. Injenje’s Phumlani Mfeka said the party could not afford to alienate this critical structure and demanded an apology.
