The emergence of the uMkhonto we Sizwe Party (MKP), led by former African National Congress (ANC) and South African president Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma, has introduced a troubling phenomenon into South African politics.

The MKP operates without internal elections, while political power is concentrated around Zuma. During national, provincial, and local elections, the face on most MKP posters is that of the former president. Voters effectively vote for Zuma, after which he exercises enormous influence over who represents the party in Parliament, provincial legislatures, and municipal councils.

There are no internal elections to choose the MKP's leadership. Office bearers from national to municipal level are appointed by Zuma and those closest to him.

After the suffering of black South Africans under apartheid, the emergence of such an undemocratic political party in Parliament exposes a weakness in the democratic system created by the 1996 Constitution. Citizens do not directly elect most of the people who represent them in Parliament, while political parties exercise extraordinary power over who reaches public office.

Kingdom

South Africa's political system places enormous power in the hands of political parties. In the MKP, that power has become concentrated around one individual.

Zuma has repeatedly reshuffled the party's leadership. Most recently, Dr John Hlophe was replaced by Zuma's son, Duduzane Zuma, as first deputy president, while Dr Bongani Mncwango was replaced as secretary general by Sibonelo Nomvalo. Nkosinathi Nhleko was similarly replaced by Reverend Phakathi as national chairperson.

None of these changes resulted from an election among MKP members. Zuma appoints and dismisses leaders at his discretion. His authority increasingly resembles that of an absolute monarch.

Under South Africa's electoral system, a person does not necessarily need to be directly elected by citizens to become an MP. Parties determine who occupies many of the seats they win. This allows Zuma enormous control over which MKP politicians enter Parliament.

The result is a system that diminishes the power of citizens while strengthening party headquarters. The principle that the people shall govern risks being replaced by the principle that party leaders shall govern. When party headquarters become corrupt or undemocratic, those characteristics can ultimately be transferred into the state.

The problem is especially stark in the MKP. Zuma can repeatedly alter the party's leadership without consulting its voters. Under the current electoral system, voters cast ballots primarily for political parties rather than individual candidates of their choice. They therefore have little influence over which politicians ultimately represent them.

The MKP's 2024 election manifesto contained many familiar ANC promises, including better healthcare and education, greater economic equality and land redistribution. The distinction between the ANC and MKP in KwaZulu-Natal was also blurred. Some MKP members behaved as though they still belonged to the ANC, while ANC resources were allegedly used to campaign for the new party.

Zuma and the African National Congress

Zuma's popularity in KwaZulu-Natal and among Zulu-speaking South Africans was central to the MKP's rapid rise.

He joined the ANC in 1959 after being recruited by senior ANC leader Harry Gwala. Zuma rose through the organisation before being arrested and serving 10 years on Robben Island alongside political prisoners including Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, and Gwala.

The ANC has elected its leaders at conferences since its formation in Bloemfontein in 1912. From John Dube through to Cyril Ramaphosa, leadership contests have formed part of the organisation's political culture.

Zuma himself benefited from that system. He defeated Thabo Mbeki for the ANC presidency at the party's Polokwane conference in 2007.

The contrast with the MKP is striking. Since the party's formation, there has been no comparable conference at which ordinary members elected its leadership. Zuma decides who occupies senior positions and who is removed.

This raises an important question. Did Zuma genuinely believe in the democratic traditions of the ANC, or were those institutions useful only while they provided him with a route to power?

The implications reach beyond the MKP itself. Were the party eventually to win national power, the same political culture could be carried into government. Zuma and the leadership around him would influence the appointment of ministers and senior state officials while operating within a party that has few meaningful democratic restraints on its own leader.

That would represent a serious threat to South Africa's democratic culture.

Zuma and the South African Communist Party

Zuma was also a member of the South African Communist Party (SACP) from 1963, after being recruited by former general secretary Moses Mabhida. He later served in the party's politburo before leaving in 1990 to concentrate on the ANC.

Yet his political career raises further questions about the ideas he actually believed in. Was Zuma committed to Marxist-Leninist thought, or was the SACP another vehicle through which political influence could be built?

The same question applies to the MKP today.

The party is frequently described as part of South Africa's political left. Yet there are few signs of even the internal democratic mechanisms found inside the SACP or ANC. MKP leaders are appointed rather than elected, while Zuma and those around him exercise overwhelming control.

This contradiction became particularly apparent when the SACP recently convened a gathering of South Africa's left-wing parties and organisations attended by the SACP, MKP, Economic Freedom Fighters, and the Congress of South African Trade Unions, among others.

What does it mean to describe a party as left-wing when its internal structure is dominated by one individual and his family?

The deeper issue is not ideological. It is democratic.

South Africa frequently celebrates its Constitution as one of the world's most progressive democratic documents. Yet a political party can enter Parliament, attract millions of votes and exercise substantial political power while offering its own members almost no meaningful say over who leads it.

The rise of the MKP should therefore provoke a wider debate about the power of political parties, the weakness of direct voter accountability and the declining democratic values within South African politics. 

Omry Makgoale is a prominent South African anti-apartheid veteran and leader of the historic 1976 Soweto Uprising. He subsequently joined the ANC’s armed wing, uMkhonto weSizwe, serving as a bodyguard to Oliver Tambo and an MK commander before spending nearly five years imprisoned in the Quatro detention camp in Angola following internal dissent, where he was also tortured.