The uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) has walked back a statement regarding the launch of an organisation that was to manage the party.

The party’s leader, former president Jacob Zuma, addressed a press conference over the weekend in which he announced the formation of an institute linked to the party. It would “assume full responsibility for the management and administration of the organisation”. It would be headed by the party’s deputy president, Dr John Hlophe.

Zuma said the institute would pursue an Afrocentric agenda aimed at liberating South Africa’s black people, and would drive “a new constitutional conversation rooted in the aspirations, history, traditions, values, and indigenous consciousness of African people”.

In an apparent reversal of this position, the party’s head of communications, Sipho Tyira, this week denied that this meant a new leadership structure.

“The announcement by the MK Institute implied that the MK Institute will assume full responsibility for the political management and administration of the organisation,” Tyira said. “The media statement also made reference to the role of various national officials, and purported the MK Institute to be having powers to change the role of national officials. Overall, the MK Institute has suggested that all leadership structures of the party are now being subjected to and report to the Institute.”

This suggestion was “null and void”. The institute would rather be integrated into the broader organisation of the party.

The MK Party has had a history of organisational instability. It has never held a conference to elect leaders (deeming them undemocratic because leaders with deep pockets can effectively buy support). It has seen prominent members shifted to and from their positions. A recent example was that of Floyd Shivambu, who defected from the Economic Freedom Fighters to become MKP’s Secretary General, before being removed from that position after less than a year.

Central to its operations is the figure of Jacob Zuma, who exercises a strongly personalised hold on the party. This has been his modus operandi going back to his time in South Africa’s presidency. Ministers were frequently shifted between portfolios in attempts to ensure that they were not able to build significant power bases that might be used against him. He has been even more reluctant as MKP leader to allow potential competitors an opportunity to do so.