Internal friction within the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK Party) has reached a boiling point after party president Jacob Zuma initiated an extensive investigation into the suspected alteration of official election lists.
The rapid intervention addresses a growing wave of fury from within the ranks, where local members have accused top coordinators of surreptitiously rewriting the names of community-nominated candidates right before they were registered with the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC).
The fallout from the list crisis was swift and unsparing, resulting in a dramatic house cleaning orchestrated by Zuma himself. High-profile casualties include the party’s eThekwini Municipality mayoral candidate, Zandile Hlophe-Mkhwanazi, and the chairperson of the National Party Liaison Committee, Sibonelo Maphumulo. Both officials have been summarily stripped of their roles on the liaison committee with immediate effect.
In a sweeping show of executive authority, Zuma also disbanded the entire Presidential Task Team, effectively neutralizing the committee that had been trusted as the core leadership structure managing candidate deployments.
Tensions exploded into the public eye earlier this week when angry MK Party members staged an intense picket outside a leadership gathering in Durban.
Demonstrators expressed deep outrage over what they described as the “parachuting” of unapproved individuals onto the council lists, completely bypassing democratic community selections. The allegations suggested that the changes were made behind closed doors just before the final submission windows closed.
In the wake of Hlophe-Mkhwanazi’s sudden removal, the MK Party has moved quickly to stabilize its metropolitan campaign by naming Apostle Mxolisi Phakathi as the new mayoral candidate for the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality.
The leadership emphasizes that the investigation will be thorough and uncompromised, with national officials promising to expose anyone who subverted internal party protocols. Meanwhile, the IEC continues its routine vetting procedures ahead of publishing the final candidate lists mid-month, as the MK Party fights to restore institutional order ahead of the high-stakes local government elections.