Former MK party secretary general Floyd Shivambu. (File photo)
The uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party celebrates its first birthday in Durban on Sunday, having lost some of the momentum that saw it take 45% of the vote in KwaZulu-Natal and 17% nationally at the polls earlier this year.
The party has failed to capitalise on its massive electoral gains on 29 May at subsequent by-elections around the country and has lost recent court battles with former Mpumalanga convener Mary Phadi and All-African Alliance Movement bishops Sophonia Tsekedi and Meshack Tebe over their seats.
Despite this, the party believes it can take control of the bulk, if not all, of KwaZulu-Natal’s 44 municipalities when South Africans vote again in local government elections in 2026 — and that it can still secure control of the provincial legislature.
MK also aims to have set up structures, from voting district to provincial level, around the country by the middle of next year as part of its build-up to the local government elections.
MK secretary general Floyd Shivambu told a media briefing at Moses Mabhida Stadium on Wednesday that the party was confident it would fill the venue with the supporters it was busing in from KwaZulu-Natal’s 11 districts.
Shivambu said it was not transporting supporters from other provinces as the stadium and logistics would “not be adequate” to handle the numbers involved should it do so.
The party had invited all of the members of the progressive caucus in parliament — including the Economic Freedom Fighters, which has been hit by a series of high-profile defections to MK, including that of Shivambu.
Shivambu said KwaZulu-Natal was the “backbone” of MK’s proven electoral support but that it had started a process of organising people in other provinces who had been mobilised to vote for it on 29 May.
“We are building from a firm foundation of KwaZulu-Natal to expand to a similar presence, if not even stronger, in other parts of South Africa,” he said.
MK is set to open head offices in Durban and Johannesburg on 6 January and begin a process of setting up structures from voter districts upwards across the entire county.
“A substantial number of people in South Africa are already mobilised behind the visions of MK.
“What is to be done now is to organise them into voter district-based structures, ward-based structures and regional structures of MK,” Shivambu said.
“There is not a single voter district in the entire South Africa where there are no people who are interested in actively participating in MK.
“What we are going to be doing is to organise the already mobilised. If we do this responsibly and effectively, we will have organised all voter districts before the beginning of the second half of 2025.”
The party would contest all 4 364 wards around South Africa and had its eyes on all of KwaZulu-Natal’s municipalities as it had emerged as the largest political organisation in all but a few on 29 May, he added.
Shivambu said MK would publicly launch its women’s league, youth league and student structures during the course of the year and hold a week-long policy conference to consolidate its policy positions.
It would also continue with its electoral court challenge to the outcome of the May elections — in which it claims it was robbed — going into the new year.
Shivambu said that other smaller parties would be merging with MK during the course of next year as part of its consolidation programme. The party was also talking behind the scenes with others in KwaZulu-Natal with a view to them supporting an MK-led provincial government.
Shivambu and national chairperson Nkosinathi Nhleko both declined to say how they hoped to achieve this and with which parties they were engaged in talks.
The party has previously claimed the support of ANC MPLs in the legislature, but has never managed to secure their votes on key issues in the house, including the election of premier Thami Ntuli.