THE ZUMA TOY — MKP'S SEVEN SECRETARIES-GENERAL PROVE IT WAS NEVER A PARTY, IT WAS A PERSONAL PROJECT
By Mpho Dube, Editor-in-Chief
The Azanian | Truth. Fearless. Unfiltered.
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Let us stop pretending.
The uMkhonto weSizwe Party was never built as a political party. It was built as a political toy. A personal vehicle. A remote control in the hands of one man — Jacob Zuma.
And the proof is not in what its enemies say. The proof is in its own leadership graveyard. In 22 months, since December 2023, MKP has burned through SEVEN Secretaries-General.
Floyd Shivambu. Arthur Zwane. Sihle Ngubane. Sfiso Maseko. Thanduxolo Dyodo. Bongani Mncwango. And now Adv Sibonelo Nomvalo — fired 12 days before Local Government Elections. Seven SGs. Two years. That is not a party. That is a political miscarriage. A leadership factory that produces casualties, not continuity.
No serious party on this continent does this. The Secretary-General is the engine of the party. He is the administrator, the organizer, the one who builds structures. When you change your engine seven times before the car has even left the garage, you were never planning to drive — you were planning to pose.
Look at the pattern.
When a Secretary-General shows independence, he is fired. When he builds a base, he is purged. When he questions the presidential circle, he is removed without reasons — just as Bongani Mncwango was after seven months, never told why, only to resurface in the IFP.
Just as Nomvalo was after seven months, accused of everything from secret committees to reshuffling caucus without informing Zuma, to dual remuneration, to delaying campaign material.
Who in a constitutional democracy reshuffles a parliamentary caucus without informing the President? That charge alone tells you everything. In MKP, the President is not first among equals — he is the owner, and everyone else is a tenant.
This is Zuma's political toy in its purest form.
In June, Nomvalo himself was used to expel Zuma's own daughter, Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla. He was the hammer. Four months later, he is the nail. That is how toys work — you use them until they break, then you throw them away.
In August, Zuma dissolved his entire top structure in one night — National Chairperson Nkosinathi Nhleko, First Deputy President John Hlophe, Deputy SG Nomsa Dlamini — all gone. The strategic presidential team — dissolved. In their place? His son, Duduzane Zuma, as First Deputy President. If that is not turning a national party into a family tuck-shop, what is?
A party is supposed to outlive its founder. MKP cannot survive its Secretary-General.
How do you tell the people of eThekwini that you will fix water and electricity when you cannot even deliver campaign t-shirts to your own branches because your SG delayed materials? How do you tell the people of Tshwane that you will govern a R50 billion budget when your own administration is accused of dual remuneration and secret deployment committees?
The exodus is not coming. The exodus is here.
Members protesting outside their own offices in eThekwini because the councillor list was manipulated. Whips purged in Parliament. Mayoral candidates replaced. Volunteers on the ground without material, without direction, watching acting leaders act for permanent leaders who were acting for other acting leaders.
That is not mismanagement. That is design.
A toy does not need stability. A toy needs a battery and a owner. And MKP's battery is Zuma's name, and its owner is Zuma's will.
Zuma has proven one thing beyond doubt in these 22 months: he does not want a party that can think. He wants a party that can obey. Independent thinkers like Shivambu, Nhleko, Hlophe, Mncwango — all gone. Loyalists remain.
In 12 days, South Africans will vote. They must ask themselves: are you voting for a party, or are you voting to wind up one man's toy for another five years?
A party that cannot keep a Secretary-General for a year cannot keep a municipality for five years.
History will record MKP's greatest achievement as this: proving that you can have seven engines and still not move.
The Azanian — We Say What Others Fear To Say.
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