Former president Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party has fired at least 20 of its members of Parliament (MPs) without any clear explanation.
In a letter dated August 3, 2024, National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza wrote to the members to inform them that she had received correspondence from the party's chief whip, Sihle Ngubane, saying that their membership had been terminated and they could no longer serve in parliament.
IOL reached out to the party’s spokesperson, Nhlamulo Ndhlela, for more details but his phone was not answered and he hadn’t replied to a Whatsapp text sent to him.
The dismissals come days after the party, for the second time, fired Arthur Zwane as its secretary-general.
This is less than a month after he was reinstated to the position. Zwane was fired earlier last month together with the treasurer general Danisa Zulu.
Zwane replaced former secretary-general Sihle Ngubane who was deployed to Parliament.
In a letter directed to Zwane, Zuma told him that he was fired because of misleading the party.
However, details on how Zwane misled the party remain unclear.
“I refer to the letter I wrote to you on June 28 in which I, Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma, as President of the uMkhonto Wesizwe Party (MKP) expressed my decision to you to relieve you from the position of Secretary General of the Party.
“I therefore reconfirm my earlier decision to you and thus expect you to cooperate fully with my decision and desist from continuing to serve in this capacity.
“Furthermore, owing to your conduct of misleading the party, I reserve the right to expel you from the Party with immediate effect,” the letter read.
Three weeks after being named the party's secretary-general in June, Zwane resigned, citing an inability to handle the workload but Zuma, allegedly rejected his resignation.
"In the last 2 weeks, I have realised that the volume of work in my office is huge and beyond my limits, especially because I have other competing business interests that I'm pursuing,” Zwane said in his letter.
But it was later revealed that Zwane only resigned because he was expelled.
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