South Africa's Zuma tackles dissent in recently formed MK party ahead of elections

Former South African President Jacob Zuma is facing an attempt to oust him from leadership positions in the party he recently joined, state broadcaster SABC reported. The move comes three weeks before South Africa's general elections.

After becoming the new face of the opposition party, Jacob Zuma recently fell out with the founder of the uMkhonto we Sizwe party (MK), Jabulani Khumalo, and ousted him from the party.

Now, Khumalo has hit back by writing to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) saying Zuma was not the rightful leader for MK and that his face should not appear on ballot papers, SABC reported.

The MK, as in the "Spear of the Nation" party in Zulu, is a new small radical political group, founded in December 2023 for the upcoming 29 May general elections, on the left side of the spectrum.

Zuma has been the registered leader of MK since 10 April.

A spokesperson for MK confirmed that Zuma was indeed the party's president and that Khumalo had indeed been expelled.

However, after Khumalo wrote to the electoral commission it replied that it did not wish to involve itself in internal party disputes.

Young party, new dispute

Jacob Zuma announced in December he would not vote for the ruling African National Congress (ANC), his longtime party, in the 29 May elections, but for the new party MK, showing his open hostility to his successor President Cyril Ramaphosa.

MK is named after the ANC's former armed wing in the apartheid era.

Support for MK has hovered between 8% and 13% since Zuma's endorsement, according to polls.

And Zuma has become the party's public face despite remaining an ANC member.

"The squabbles" in the MK are a "clear indication that there are serious challenges inside the party", political analyst Levy Ndou told SABC. "It does not give a good image of the party."

Popular man

Zuma was president from 2009 until 2018 but was forced to quit following a string of accusations in corruption scandals involving his administration.

He is now considered as one of the most divisive figures in South Africa, but also remains very popular among some members of the Zulu community.

Zuma remains a force in South African politics, especially in his home province of KwaZulu Natal where protests erupted in 2021 after he was jailed for refusing to participate in a corruption inquiry.

The Constitutional Court is expected to decide soon whether Jacob Zuma can stand in the general elections.

Polls suggest the ANC could very well lose its majority for the first time since it came to power in 1994, after the end of apartheid and with the election of Nelson Mandela.

Smaller parties like the Democratic Alliance and the MK could potentially gain leverage after the election as the ANC might have to look for coalition partners.

 (with Reuters)