The MK Party revolves around one man and one man only
For Jabulani Khumalo, the founder of the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, the ongoing leadership struggle is not merely a legal dispute over directorship.
Khumalo said that it is an ideological battle between a movement designed to amplify the voice of the electorate and a vehicle hijacked to serve the ego of one man.
In a wide-ranging interview with Newsday, Khumalo paints a stark picture of a political organisation that has allegedly abandoned its founding mandate of service in favour of a chaotic cult of personality centred on former President Jacob Zuma.
Khumalo founded and registered the party in September 2023, ahead of the country’s seventh democratic elections.
He had originally formed another organisation before the sixth democratic election, but later resolved to support the African National Congress (ANC).
Khumalo asserts that the MK Party’s genesis in 2023 was rooted in a desire to provide a platform for unheard South Africans.
“We registered for the people of South Africa to be able to voice their matters and issues that they have,” noting that the “voice of the people is not heard by the leadership” in the current government.
His vision was to hold those accountable when they refused to listen to their constituents.
However, Khumalo argues this vision was derailed the moment Zuma transformed from a campaign figurehead in December 2023, into a de facto leader.
According to Khumalo, the party was “hijacked by a man called Jacob Zuma and his daughter,” for “dark ideas of what they can use to benefit themselves” rather than the citizenry.
Khumalo contends that the current MK parliamentary caucus operates less as a legislative body and more as a cheering squad.
“The people that are leading MK, they are not doing what the South African people voted them in… to do, but instead they go there and say Zuma Zuma. There’s nothing else,” Khumalo lamented.
He argues that under the current regime, “everything is about Zuma. It’s not about the people of South Africa”.
Alleged exploitation
Khumalo suggests that this cult of personality is a veneer for exploitation.
“He is using all his charms and everything to make people love him, but he doesn’t like people,” Khumalo claimed.
He characterised Zuma’s political strategy as parasitic, asserting that “Zuma wants to have people around him to use them and then dump them”.
This centralisation of power around one individual has allegedly led to the looting of party resources.
Khumalo claims that parliamentary funds meant for constituency offices are being diverted.
Instead, he alleges funds are transferred to individuals close to the former president “so that those funds could be used for Zuma’s private matters.”
Khumalo bluntly states that Zuma treats the party coffers as his personal “tuck shop.”
Former MK Party SG Floyd Shivambu alleged that R7 million is being looted from the MKP’s coffers every month by some of its members.
Shivambu, who was the MKP’s SG for seven months after defecting from the EFF, said that the organisation’s finances are a mess.
“Withdrawals of no less than R7 million every month from the organisational coffers,” alleged Shivambu.
“Every SG who has ever raised that got removed from the leadership of MKP,” he added. He would not give further details on the matter.
Since launching over two years ago, the MKP has had nine SGs.
Newsday reported how, in August 2025, the MK Party admitted to being in serious financial trouble, sitting in at least R28 million in debt, with independent auditors having findings against the party’s finances.
The MK Party has fiercely denied these allegations. They said Khumalo’s claims were ‘false, self-serving and disruptive.’
They claimed he no longer represents the party, affirming Zuma as leader, dismissing Khumalo as irrelevant, and condemning his legal challenges and statements as “misguided.”
Using party name for a personal vendetta
Ultimately, Khumalo views Zuma’s involvement not as a political project, but as a personal vendetta against President Cyril Ramaphosa.
He dismissed Zuma’s political motivations as the actions of a man who is driven by inexplicable anger toward his successor.
Khumalo’s stance is uncompromising: “Let him die angry… He must leave as early as possible and die in the ANC… Not in the MK party”.
The dispute has played out extensively in South African courts, with Khumalo facing repeated setbacks.
In May 2024, the Electoral Court dismissed his application to invalidate Zuma’s leadership, ruling that Khumalo had been expelled from the party and therefore lacked legal standing to challenge its leadership structures.
The court noted that Khumalo failed to bring expert evidence to prove the alleged forgery of his signature.
Subsequent attempts to be reinstated as a Member of Parliament were also dismissed by the Western Cape High Court.
By October 2025, Khumalo had suffered another blow when the Constitutional Court dismissed his urgent application to reclaim the party, effectively solidifying Zuma’s control.
Despite these losses, Khumalo remains undeterred. “I can’t let go of my baby.”
He plans to approach the Supreme Court of Appeal soon.
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