South Africa: Identity Crisis in the Umkhonto Wesizwe Party

11 January 2024
Scrolla (Johannesburg)
By Celani Sikhakhane

The uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) Party has created chaos and confusion in KwaZulu-Natal over its political direction after its interim secretary general announced that the leadership is not leaving the ANC.

So the leaders will remain in the ANC even while they are calling for people to vote for its rival MK Party in the upcoming general elections.

The confusion emerged during an SABC uKhozi FM interview with uMkhonto Wesizwe Party's interim secretary general, Thanduxolo "Gorbachev" Dyodo, on Wednesday afternoon.

Dyodo told the Abasiki Bebunda current affairs show that they are not leaving the ANC and they are still part of the organisation.

"We are not leaving the ANC. We are still part of the movement and this is not a confusion. I have tried to pay for my membership recently.

"My branch secretary told me that he has received an instruction that he must not accept my renewal of ANC membership," said Dyodo.

Former president Jacob Zuma has also claimed he would remain in the ANC despite campaigning for and voting for the MK party.

Dyodo also said that they were supposed to book a stadium to launch the party but they have not done it because they didn't know that to book a stadium you have to pay for it.

Dyodo said they thought stadiums were free venues.

This is when listeners flooded the show with calls expressing their concern and confusion over the direction of uMkhonto Wesizwe.

The first caller told Dyodo that his statement showed that they might take people's votes back to the ANC.

"I am starting to get concerned about uMkhonto Wesizwe because they are calling us to vote for them and take its membership.

"On the other hand, they claim that they are not leaving the ANC. This means after we have voted for them they will take our votes back to the ANC. This is seriously confusing," said the female caller.

Another caller who introduced himself as Kwanele Nene raised the same concern.

"I am really confused about uMkhonto Wesizwe. Why are they calling on us to vote for them but they are still part of the ANC? What exactly is happening with this party? Who is the president? I am asking because former president Jacob Zuma only announced that he will vote for the MK Party but he is not the leader of MK?," asked Nene.

uMkhonto Wesizwe national volunteers issued a statement, calling for the organisation to replace Dyodo as a matter of urgency.

They also called on the party's interim leaders to terminate their membership with the ANC to stop the confusion about the identity of the party.

Read the original article on Scrolla.

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