A new party in South Africa is opposing Zuma as the election draws closer

Three weeks before an election in which he is predicted to get a sizable amount of support, state broadcaster SABC revealed on Tuesday that former South African President Jacob Zuma is facing an attempt to remove him from senior posts in his new party.

Zuma, one of the most controversial people in South Africa, served as president from 2009 until his forced resignation in 2018 due to a series of scandals involving his administration on charges of corruption.

Openly antagonistic toward his successor, President Cyril Ramaphosa, Zuma declared in December that he will support the new party uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) in the May 29 election instead of voting for his longstanding party, the African National Congress.

Smaller parties like MK may gain clout after the election if the ANC is seeking coalition partners, as polls indicate that the ANC would lose its majority for the first time since taking office in 1994.

Surveys show that following Zuma’s endorsement, support for MK has ranged from 8% to 13%. Zuma, who is still an ANC member, has taken on the role of the party’s public face.

However, MK founder Jabulani Khumalo retaliated against Zuma by writing to the election commission, claiming that Zuma was not MK’s legitimate leader and that his image shouldn’t be on voting materials, after the two had a falling out. This was published by SABC.

According to an MK representative, Khumalo had been banished and Zuma was the party’s president. The election commission stated that Zuma had been the MK’s registered leader since April 10 and that it did not intend to get involved in internal party conflicts.

The ANC postponed a disciplinary hearing against Zuma that was scheduled to happen this week, citing security concerns ahead of the election, as a measure of Zuma’s perceived ability to cause disruption.

Zuma is still a powerful figure in South African politics, particularly in KwaZulu Natal, his home region, where riots broke out in 2021 after he was imprisoned for declining to take part in a corruption investigation.
After the ANC’s previous armed wing during the apartheid era, MK was named.