JUSTICE MALALA | Here’s why the MK Party’s antics are not funny, but are dangerous

Twenty-three months after Jacob Zuma announced himself as a member of a new political formation called the MK Party, the jokes about and inside the entity don’t stop writing themselves. Purges, back-stabbings, midnight press releases dominate the MK Party discourse.

It’s all very funny, but it’s also extremely dangerous because this party could take over the running of KwaZulu-Natal any minute now if the governing coalition in the province collapses. Then the joke will be on us as MK Party’s chaos enters the halls of provincial government.

Last week Zuma returned from a trip to Burkina Faso (where he met with the country’s unelected, undemocratic, military leader Ibrahim Traoré) and suspended the party membership of the impeached judge John Hlophe and removed him as leader of the party’s parliamentary caucus.

Zuma’s action followed several nights of firings and late night press statements from the party. Hlophe had fired Colleen Makhubele as the party’s parliamentary chief whip and appointed Des “Weekend Special” van Rooyen, notorious for serving as finance minister under Zuma for just a weekend in the mid-2010s, as her replacement.

Officially, the party says Zuma suspended Hlophe because of his “ill-discipline” after Hlophe acted unilaterally in changing chief whips. Hlophe was suspended just a week after Zuma’s long-time defender, Tony Yengeni, had ditched the ANC and been installed as MK Party’s second deputy president. The irony of having Hlophe, an impeached former Western Cape judge president, as first deputy president while Yengeni, a convicted fraudster, was the second deputy president seems to have escaped party members.

Last week’s purges are nothing new for the MK Party. South Africa’s main opposition party has over the past two years been the scene of back-stabbing, firings, breakaways, purges and all manner of other political skulduggery. It’s the culture.

When former EFF deputy leader Floyd Shivambu joined the MK Party last November, he said it was “my best decision ever”. He has now been bundled out. He should have known that his demise was inevitable — by my count there have been eight secretaries-general of the party since December 2023.

Shivambu, Hlophe, Makhubele, and anyone else who thinks they can operate in the MK Party, have failed the simple cognitive challenge of recognising what this entity is. It is a family enterprise and a feudal entity in which there is only one sacrosanct authority: Zuma. If he were a Mafia boss, he would be the capo di tutti capi (chief of all chiefs).

This tells you what the culture of the MK Party is now. Total and absolute obedience to the diktats and whims of Zuma is demanded. Internal democracy is non-existent.

Zuma himself does not hide this. The party’s interim constitution designates him as the “commander of the organisation” and states that he provides “political and ideological leadership and guidance to the whole organisation”.

He is the supreme leader, and the only people who have power outside of himself are his daughter Duduzile Sambudla-Zuma and party spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela.

This trio has over the past two years demonstrated its power and absolute control of MK Party by tossing aside party founder Jabulani Khumalo and the coterie of leaders he started out with around September 2023 before Zuma performed his takeover of the entity in December 2024. Since then, no one has been spared. If one does not prostrate themselves before Zuma and do his bidding, they are out.

This tells you what the culture of the MK Party is now. Total and absolute obedience to the diktats and whims of Zuma is demanded. Internal democracy is non-existent. Connections to the top three are essential. Talent means nothing. Hard work means nothing.

It is a cult. To operate within it, you must leave your brain at the door.

So new passengers on the MK train such as Yengeni need to be clear about what they are joining. The freedom that Yengeni has enjoyed to attack the president of his organisation (he has thrown barbs at Cyril Ramaphosa for the past seven years while being an ANC national executive member) is over. If he says one negative word about Zuma he will be out.

Further, Zuma is a ruthless man. He has throughout his political career tossed out friend and foe alike. The suspended Hlophe, for example, wrecked his legal career for Zuma. Now Zuma has repaid him handsomely by tossing him aside like a used prophylactic.

Sadly for South Africa, these shenanigans should be scary. Zuma and his key advisers are running their party like a circus where the ringmaster has left the building. It is chaos and confusion.

This is the party which has been machinating to take over power in KwaZulu-Natal — and it is very close to doing so. If it does succeed in elbowing out the current ruling coalition and is installed in power, expect mayhem in that province. The place will be run like a cult and undemocratic fiefdom.

Whoever becomes premier will be expected to treat Zuma like a king, and to lie down and take instruction from this king of the MK Party. It will be absolute and utter chaos.