Zuma’s lecture focused predominantly on Brics and global politics.
Former president and MK party leader Jacob Zuma has described his party as the “only true hope for the last stage of the total liberation of the South African people.”
Zuma delivered the 8th Annual Leadership Lecture at the University of Professional Studies Accra (UPSA) in Accra, Ghana, on Tuesday.
Lecture
The lecture was held under the theme “The geo-politics and geo-economics of de-dollarisation: BRICS currency strategy, lessons for Africa’s common currency, and beyond.”
Zuma’s lecture focused predominantly on Brics and global politics. But he also spoke about the MK party and the “future of South Africa.”
MK pillars
The MK party leader said the party’s manifesto, which is referred to as the “People’s Mandate,” outlines eight pillars, which serve as the foundation for our vision and policy proposals.
Zuma said the pillars include reclaiming dignity; land and mineral resources; people’s power; reclaiming the economy; building human capital and technological capabilities; reclaiming space, safety and security; and sovereignty and position in Africa and the world.
“Together, these pillars embody the uncompromising vision of the MK Party as the only true hope for the last stage of the total liberation of the South African people, a liberation not just from apartheid’s political chains, but from the economic captivity, poverty, unemployment, and neo-colonial domination that continue to strangle our nation.
“Unlike the compromised so-called Government of National Unity, the MK Party represents the genuine continuation of the liberation struggle, carrying forward the spirit of our forebears to deliver full freedom, dignity and prosperity to every South African,” Zuma said.
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The West
During the lecture, Zuma said Africa’s dependency on the West “is a form of slow death.”
“We export minerals and crops at the lowest prices, only to buy them back as manufactured goods at ten times the cost. We face tariffs on our exports, yet we are lectured about free trade.
“We borrow in dollars, only for our currencies to collapse under exchange-rate manipulation. And when we resist, coups are sponsored, leaders are assassinated, and sanctions are imposed. This is not a partnership. It is exploitation,” Zuma said.
Africa’s liberation
Zuma said the MK party recognises that Africa’s liberation is incomplete without strong intra-African solidarity.
“We will therefore continue to agitate for robust and action-oriented diplomatic relations between South Africa and Ghana, ensuring that these instruments serve the real needs of our people, advance pan-African unity, and resist external manipulation of our continental partnerships.
“It will be the women, youth, the students, the scholars, the innovators of Africa and the poorest and downtrodden people of our continent who must carry this revolution forward,” Zuma said.
‘Chaining Africa’
Zuma said: “The West built its power by chaining Africa.
“The new generation of Africans must build our power by breaking those chains. We must move from the classroom to the policy room, from the laboratory to the marketplace, from the lecture hall to the halls of power. Africa must produce not just employees for foreign corporations, but inventors, thinkers, and builders of African systems.
“We are not beggars at the world’s table, we are builders of a new table.”
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