“Zuma Played Maskandi Music All Day While ANC Envoy Ntuli Waited at Nkandla” — GNU Talks Stalled

Maskandi music filled the homestead at Nkandla from morning until dusk on the day the ANC sent its negotiator to discuss Government of National Unity arrangements directly with Jacob Zuma. Mdumiseni Ntuli arrived carrying a mandate from his party’s top leadership. He left carrying little else. The former MK Party president, it appears, had a different agenda entirely — one measured in beats rather than policy concessions.

ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula confirmed the extraordinary account during a public address, telling supporters that he personally dispatched Ntuli to KwaZulu-Natal’s Nkandla during the sensitive GNU formation period. Mbalula stated that Zuma allegedly engineered the entire encounter to prevent substantive dialogue, keeping the ANC envoy occupied through hours of traditional Zulu folk music rather than engaging on the critical coalition framework both parties allegedly needed to finalise.

Mbalula revealed the incident as evidence of the deliberate obstruction his delegation encountered throughout that turbulent negotiation window. Senior SAPS protective services members stationed at Nkandla that day reportedly witnessed the prolonged musical standoff but offered no official account. The Secretary-General noted that Ntuli conducted himself with patience throughout, never once abandoning his diplomatic brief despite the provocative treatment he endured.

The visit took place against a backdrop of fierce rivalry between the ANC and Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe movement, which had just delivered a devastating electoral blow to Ramaphosa’s party across KwaZulu-Natal in the May 2024 general elections. Investigators tracking GNU negotiations confirmed that multiple back-channel approaches to Zuma’s inner circle collapsed before formal talks ever began. The relationship between the two organisations had deteriorated sharply following Zuma’s controversial expulsion from ANC membership in 2021.

What makes the detail stick is the specific image: Ntuli, a disciplined political operator who built his career navigating union halls and branch committee rooms, seated somewhere inside that vast Nkandla compound while maskandi rhythms bounced off the walls hour after hour. No briefing documents opened. No joint communiqué drafted. Just guitar strings and the unmistakable sound of a veteran politician communicating power without uttering a single word about governance.

The ANC ultimately entered the GNU without MK Party participation — but whether Ntuli’s fruitless afternoon at Nkandla was the moment that sealed that outcome remains something nobody in Luthuli House has fully answered. What exactly did Zuma want the ANC to understand by keeping their man waiting all day long?

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