Zuma did the right thing to start MK as the ANC has 'gone astray' - Hlophe

CAPE TOWN - New opposition leader in Parliament, John Hlophe, said he was grateful to MK leader, Jacob Zuma, for entrusting him to lead the party in Parliament. 

With Zuma himself ineligible to lead the party in the legislature because of his criminal conviction, the job will now fall on Hlophe, whom Parliament impeached as a High Court judge just four months ago. 

But Hlophe said that Zuma remained the party’s president.

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He said that Zuma did the right thing to start the MK Party because the African National Congress (ANC) was no longer the party it once was. 

"The MK Party was founded because the ANC, in our shared view, which is the collective view of the MK Party, has completely gone astray. This is not the ANC that we used to know, particularly over the past five years under the leadership of Cyril Ramaphopsa. This is no longer the ANC which fights for poor people, who fights for landless people. It’s a different ANC altogether."

Hlophe said that he expected some of the party’s seasoned politicians, which include former minister, Des van Rooyen, to assist him in his new field of politics. 

"We consider ourselves, the MK Party, as the official opposition party in the country, because the opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, is now part of the Government of National Unity, and we are going to work very closely with other progressive parties in the opposition. I have in mind the EFF and the ATM and other progressive parties."