UMKHONTO weSizwe Party (MKP) leader and former president Jacob Zuma has warned that factionalism and infighting within the party will reduce it to a laughing stock in the eyes of the public.
In a leaked audio recording of Zuma addressing MK Party members, he described this behaviour as intolerable and warned that it threatened to undermine the party’s ambition to grow and take over the governance of the country.
The recording has been circulating on social media. The party confirmed the recording, saying it was made during a meeting last year.
Recently, the rank-and-file members of the party protested outside Zuma’s home after three senior leaders in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature were suspended.
In the recording, Zuma cautioned against the tendency to air the party’s issues in public.
He emphasised that the party should focus on achieving a two-thirds majority, but instead, it was consumed by internal squabbles over positions.
“We should be doing things right, winning elections, and taking over the running of the country, but we fight each other today,” he said.
“People are threatening each other with guns now. I am very worried. We are now infamous. We are fighting in the senior leadership positions, in the women’s league, and in the youth league. How is that helping us take the party forward? I will not allow this to continue.
“Why are we fighting amongst each other in public for? Why can’t we get together and sort out any issues?” said Zuma.
“We are the laughing stock now because of this infighting. Our mission is to encourage people to join the party so we can become the majority, not to chase them away.”
An MKP member, who spoke to The Mercury on condition of anonymity, said the party was faced with challenges arising from the expectations of people who joined the party.
“There was an expectation that they would govern; when that did not happen, there had to be a switch in terms of trying to accommodate the expectations of all the people that were there. There are individuals who are self-serving, who look at other members and believe that those members are standing in their way to success, and there are those that are community-oriented. There are also people who are pumping in serious money to undermine the party and using party members to do that.”
He said there was a disconnect between people coming from outside and those that had been there since the party started.
“You can understand that we do not have excess seats, so if someone comes from outside, that will unsettle people who feel they had campaigned for that seat. But we also need skills; look at bringing on Shivambu, within months he has helped the party develop policies that we can refer to as members,” said the member.
Political analyst Siyabonga Ntombela said Zuma was right to be concerned about the ructions within his party, as they display disunity to the public.
“This disunity could be exploited by other parties in the upcoming 2026 local government election campaign.”
Party spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela said there was no party infighting – Zuma was addressing a specific incident of individuals that were fighting for positions.
“The president was saying ‘why must we be fighting for positions?’.”