It seems uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party has finally settled on a group of core leaders who will guide South Africa’s third-largest party as it seeks to build grassroots structures in the run-up to the 2026 local government elections.
On Thursday, MK Party held a press conference in Sandton, Johannesburg, where they paraded their leaders and gave South Africans some insight into the party’s machinery.
Since the party was launched in December 2023, it has been wracked by constant personnel changes, internally and in Parliament.
Now, the party has a top-eight leadership group, supported by what it calls a national high command, which has 45 additional members.
According to Zuma, there will not be an elective conference anytime soon, so the length of these leaders’ tenures is likely to depend on the whims of the former president.
Who are the MK Party leaders?
Jacob Zuma
Zuma is the president and the beneficial founder of MK Party.
Last month, the 82-year-old former ANC president was expelled from the liberation party after being found guilty of misconduct due to starting and campaigning for the MK Party, and eating away at the ANC’s voter base.
The corruption-accused Zuma was a member of the ANC for nearly 65 years, serving in various roles, including deputy secretary-general, national chairperson, deputy president and finally president.
He was president of South Africa from 2009 until he was recalled by the ANC in 2018.
John Hlophe
Hlophe is MK Party’s deputy president and leader of the party in Parliament, ostensibly because Zuma himself cannot be a member of the Parliament (MP), due to his contempt conviction.
Hlophe is a former jurist and until early this year, he was the Western Cape judge president.
On 6 March 2024, President Cyril Ramaphosa formally removed Hlophe from the bench. This came after Hlophe was impeached by MPs in the National Assembly on 21 February 2024, becoming the first judge in democratic South Africa to be removed from office.
Hlophe was removed after MPs voted for his impeachment, emanating from a finding of guilty over gross judicial misconduct by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) in 2021.
Hlophe now serves on the JSC, a decision that is being challenged in court.
Sifiso Maseko
Maseko is the secretary-general of MK Party, replacing Arthur Zwane as the organisation’s CEO.
He is a medical doctor by profession and a former CEO of Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, the largest in Africa, before being removed from the position over allegations of maladministration.
Maseko is also the former head of infrastructure at the Gauteng Department of Health.
Nombuso Mkhize
Mkhize is the MK Party’s deputy secretary-general.
Not much is known about her but a quick search revealed that she is a former Correctional Services official, serving as regional head for KwaZulu-Natal, according to her LinkedIn and Facebook pages.
It seems she has fully committed to the Zuma-led party, as she resigned from the department last month.
“Correctional Services is able to confirm that Nombuso Mkhize resigned on 24 July 2024,” Correctional Services spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo told The South African.
It is unclear if the resignation was immediate or if she is currently serving her notice.
Nathi Nhleko
Nhleko is MK Party’s national chairperson, after long stint in the ANC.
Nhleko, a former ANC national executive committee member, tendered his seven-page resignation letter on 4 March 2024.
“I resign from this African National Congress as its current values and principles are not aligned to mine,” Nhleko said in the letter.
He is a former ANC national executive committee member and served in Cabinet during Zuma’s presidency, first as minister of police between 26 May 2014 and 30 March 2017, then as public works minister from 31 March 2017 until 26 February 2018.
Known as the “fire pool minister”, he is infamous for his part in the Nkandla scandal, when Zuma used public funds to refurbish his personal home in rural KwaZulu-Natal.
Nhleko insisted in 2014 that a swimming pool dug at the Nkandla home, was actually a “fire pool”, for firefighting purposes.
Wilson Sebiloane
Sebiloane is Nhleko’s deputy in the MK Party.
He previously served in the ANC Johannesburg’s regional executive committee and was also a member of the uMkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans’ Association, a disbanded structure of the ANC.
Sebiloane is a former MK operative, the ANC’s liberation army. He was granted amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission after being convicted of attempted murder “for injuring two policemen during a shootout in Johannesburg in 1991”.
In 2018, he was implicated in a “simulated” robbery scheme at Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), where security guards reportedly said they were carrying out Sebiloane’s orders when they faked a robbery.
Sebiloane was the Prasa’s business intelligence unit at the time.
Floyd Shivambu
Shivambu is the latest and most high-profile politician to join MK Party recently.
He is the party’s national organiser, after he defected from the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) last week, where he was deputy president.
Shivambu, who has been implicated in the looting spree at VBS Mutual Bank, was praised by Zuma on Thursday as a consummate politician, saying the EFF co-founder was “honest and clear”.
Shivambu is also a former member of the ANC Youth League, where he was expelled in 2013.
“Mr Shivambu has made it his full-time job to undermine the organisation and its leadership. We have a warning to many others who might have ideas to follow the same anarchic line that we are not going to sit in our laurels and become spectators when they are blatantly undermining our organisation,” Youth League convenor Mzwandile Masina said at the time.
Menzi Magubane
Magubane is in charge of the party’s purse as treasurer-general, having replaced Danisa Zulu on 1 July 2024.
Do you think this leadership is able to stabilise MK Party?
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