‘I was somewhere’: Zuma doesn’t address health in video but vows MKP is ready ‘to take over’ - News24

MK Party (MKP) president Jacob Zuma made his first public appearance in nearly a month in a video clip on Friday in which he said the MKP was “ready to take over” the country.

He did not address the extended illness for which he was hospitalised on October 6 and which has kept him out of the public eye and off the campaign trail since then.

The 84-year-old former president said simply that he had been “somewhere” and acknowledged the well wishes he had received.

“I will indeed say to the people of South Africa, when I was somewhere, they went around and said a lot, wishing that I should be as good as everybody would be,” he said in the video posted on YouTube.

According to the MKP, it was a live address.

While Zuma spoke, a recording his famous rendition of the song Ngomhla Sibuyayo, which he sang at the funeral of former president Nelson Mandela and again at the reburial of SACP leader Moses Kotane in 2015, played in the background.

“I’m very happy people would say that I should come back and be what I am now. And I wish that everyone will vote correctly, but more than anything, vote for uMkhonto weSizwe,” Zuma said as the music continued in the background.

Speaking five days before the local government elections, Zuma said the time had come for repressed South Africans to take over.

“There is no doubt about it, and no matter what other people can say and do, we are ready to take over,” he said as another song started playing in the background.

“We have created a very big core of South African people that need to take back the country.”

Unusually, Zuma spoke only English, not his customary mix of English and isiZulu.

Zuma was admitted to a private hospital in Pietermaritzburg after falling ill during an MKP campaign event in Msinga on 6 October.

He spent nearly two weeks under medical care, with President Cyril Ramaphosa confirming that the South African National Defence Force surgeon-general was overseeing his treatment.

The MKP attributed the admission to fatigue diagnosed during a routine check-up and said doctors had recommended supervised rest and recuperation.

However, News24 reported sources describing the episode as a serious health scare.

In an apparent attempt to counter reports that his condition was grave, his daughter, Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, posted videos of him exercising with dumbbells on 14 October.

Since his release from St Anne’s Hospital three days later, Zuma’s whereabouts have been a closely guarded secret. Well-placed sources told News24 only that he had been taken to a private location to recuperate further.

Polling data suggests that his party, founded in December 2023, is set to take about 13% of the overall vote in Wednesday’s municipal elections.

News24 surveyed 5,001 registered voters to reveal who leads, what voters want fixed, and which coalitions South Africans could support.

News24’s free audiobook for subscribers this month is ‘Checkmate: How Shoprite Checkers rewrote the rules and won’ by Steven Boykey Sidley.

From Babita Deokaran to Mpho Mafole, whistleblowers remain at the forefront of News24’s intensive investigative work.

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