By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
UMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party co-founder Jabulani Khumalo placed Jacob Zuma on precautionary suspension and has written to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) requesting the immediate removal of Zuma as the face and president of the newly-formed party.
Khumalo’s request comes as the country is heading to hotly-contested polls in three weeks.
He registered the party in September 2023, but it came into prominence in December, when Zuma said he was ditching “the ANC of Ramaphosa” and would now campaign for the new party. Zuma is now on the MK party’s presidential candidate list, although this matter is in the Constitutional Court on 10 May.
The MK party is centred on the popularity of Zuma and some refer to the party as a “populist tribalist and anti-foreigner party”.
In the letter, Khumalo said Zuma had committed “several acts of misconduct in relation to the activities of the MKP”.
“These have brought the party into disrepute and caused confusion within the broader public and membership of the MKP,” Khumalo said. “Specifically, you have purported to suspend me as the president of the party without following the procedures prescribed by the constitution of the party.”
Khumalo said Zuma’s precautionary suspension would be followed by disciplinary proceedings being brought against him by the party.
Khumalo and several other MK party members were expelled at the end of April, with party spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela accusing him of using its funds to buy expensive new vehicles.
Ndhlela also accused Khumalo of working to undermine the MK party — which has been rocked by allegations of fraud in the process of collecting signatures to have it placed on the ballot — from within on the ANC’s behalf.
“Khumalo is not the founder of MK party, Zuma is. He was a random selection to register the party for obvious reasons because we did not want the ANC or any of Jacob Zuma’s adversaries to know in advance what was happening.”
“So, Jabulani Khumalo has never been the founder or in any way been the president of the party. Zuma has always been the president of the party.
“We used to refer to Khumalo as the commander, but in the end, the ultimate leader is and has always been Zuma,” he said.
The episode is reminiscent of the spat in the ANC during which its then secretary general, Ace Magashule, suspended president Cyril Ramaphosa for suspending him.
Magashule was ultimately expelled from the party.
In his letter to the IEC, Khumalo requested the “immediate removal” of Zuma “as the face of the MKP and president of MKP”.
He accused Zuma of hijacking the party and of fraudulently having him removed from the party’s electoral list.
Khumalo also spilled the beans on how the MK party was formed and what role the former head of state played in this process.
He said he had registered the party with Zuma’s “political advice and guidance” and that the former president had told him its name should be “aligned with the ANC”, whose brand was “entrenched within the public and the population”.
Zuma had also suggested the date of 16 December — the anniversary of the formation of the ANC’s military wing, uMkhonto weSizwe — for the announcement of his role in the party, and had helped him raise more than R700 000 to register it.
“In fact, the name uMkhonto weSizwe was proposed by Zuma. I was responsible for the registration of MKP with the electoral commission,” Khumalo said.”At all times it was understood that Zuma is not a member of MKP, but would assist it in the campaign.”
“When he announced his decision to vote and campaign for MKP on 16 December 2023, he made it clear that he would remain a member of the ANC,” Khumalo said.
The latest Ipsos poll, which surveyed 2,545 registered voters in face-to-face interviews over a month, from 9 March to 15 April, predicted that the MK party will garner up to 8.4% of the national vote and the ANC could drop to about 40.2%.
KwaZulu-Natal is where there are more than 5.7 million registered voters – or 20.7% of SA’s electorate – and the Ipsos survey “suggests that MK could secure upwards of 20% of the vote in KwaZulu-Natal and thereby reduce the ANC’s national vote share in the region by five percentage points”
Meanwhile the IEC says there is “a substantial risk of a disputed electoral outcome” in the upcoming election if Zuma is allowed to stand – and has urged the Constitutional Court to urgently rule on his eligibility.