A VIEW OF THE WEEK: Trump? We have a Trump at home

MK Party leader Jacob Zuma is lining up a fresh proxy power plan. Picture: Gallo Images/Luba Lesolle You have seen the ads: Follow the advice of a terrible AI actor to do the Taichai walking challenge for 30 days, and your body will be transformed. What a difference 30 days and a $40 subscription can make!

While I would advise you to avoid such scams like you would MTN Taxi Rank after dark, some 30-day challenges do work. Like the one former president Jacob Zuma is currently undertaking. In three months, which is a little more than 30 days btw, Zuma’s MK Party will once again contest elections.

They were the surprise of the 2024 national elections, securing the third-highest votes in the country and the most of any party in KwaZulu-Natal. It was clear that Zuma’s aura remained, but will it still shine two years later? Like old Donnie Trump across the sea, Zuma is an astute politician and a stubborn person who won’t let facts or public opinion make up his mind for him.

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They demand attention, whether from outrage or adoration, creating political churches of worshippers from their members. There are few like them in world politics. They are also obsessed with power and the enrichment it brings, and so are patient before pouncing for another piece of the pie.

So when 84-year-old Zuma shuffled out of the shade of Nkandla to once again rearrange his party less than 30 days ago, it was clear that he was gatvol of the project he had created and wanted control again. There were signs of a shift in the months before, like when heaxed his daughter as MPand banned all factionalism. He had seen his party go rogue and, as a former leader of an ANCcurrently in implosion, he was fully aware that a civil war would destroy his young party and kill hopes of a return to power.

In late July, he took overbank accounts and dissolved a short-lived Presidential Task Team (PTT)meant to manage the party ahead of the elections. This week, he reinstated the PTT, seemingly with curtailed powers, and replaced his deputy president, Dr John Hlophe, with his son, Duduzane Zuma.

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