JOHANNESBURG — The uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) is confronting deepening internal fractures just weeks before the 2026 Local Government Elections, following the abrupt expulsion of two Members of Parliament. As party founder Jacob Zuma continues to restructure the leadership, political analysts warn that these repeated purges threaten the party’s electoral momentum and long-term organizational stability.
The latest departures involve MPs Dr. Khanyisile Litchfield-Tshabalala and Pumlani Kubukeli, who were removed merely days before the party’s scheduled 2026 local election manifesto launch. This latest shake-up compounds a pattern of high-profile exits within roughly 18 months of the MKP’s founding. The list of ousted or sidelined figures now includes former deputy president Floyd Shivambu, former chief whip John Hlophe, Zuma’s daughter Duduzile, two national spokespersons, a chief whip, and a treasurer general.
According to political analyst Hlumelo Xaba, this relentless turnover is not random, but rather a symptom of severe friction between the party’s grassroots members and its upper leadership. Xaba observes that certain factions are weaponizing their close access to Jacob Zuma to systematically eliminate rivals.
“There are individuals leveraging their proximity to the president opportunistically to purge others and push them to the periphery,” Xaba explained. He noted that Zuma appears increasingly vulnerable to the counsel of this inner circle, making him susceptible to advice that facilitates these internal cleanouts.
The timing of these expulsions—roughly 10 weeks before voters head to the polls—raises serious strategic concerns. While the MKP achieved a major breakthrough in the 2024 elections by securing over two million votes and becoming the dominant political force in KwaZulu-Natal, Xaba cautions that past electoral success does not guarantee future viability. For long-term sustainability, a political party requires coherent, unified, and stable structures.
Currently, the MKP is the third-largest party nationally, yet it has shown no concrete signs of launching its manifesto despite being only two months away from the election. Although candidate lists have been announced, ground-level operations appear disorganized. Xaba predicts that while the party’s entrenched support base in KwaZulu-Natal may sustain it, the internal chaos will likely derail its ambitions to expand into provinces where it previously struggled, such as the Eastern Cape, Free State, and North West.
The analysis also highlighted the strategic challenges facing the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), which recently unveiled its election manifesto in Soweto with a renewed focus on land reform and local economic development. While land redistribution remains the ideological bedrock of the PAC, the party is severely out-resourced and out-organized by larger rivals like the MKP and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). With only one seat in Parliament and a minimal footprint in municipal councils, the PAC lacks the national infrastructure necessary to capitalize on its core messaging.
Furthermore, Xaba pointed out a glaring contradiction in the PAC’s current political positioning. The party holds the land reform and rural development portfolio within the Government of National Unity (GNU), partnering with the African National Congress (ANC) and the Democratic Alliance (DA).
Campaigning for radical land redress at the ward level becomes highly problematic when a party’s coalition partner—specifically the DA, the second-largest force in the GNU—fundamentally opposes such policies. Xaba emphasized that this dynamic places the PAC at a distinct disadvantage. Unlike the EFF, which can freely champion radical land policies from the opposition benches, the PAC must now answer to voters for participating in a coalition government that many perceive as slow, cautious, and neoliberal, while simultaneously advocating for reforms that the current government actively neglects.
As the 2026 local elections approach, both the MKP and the PAC face critical tests: one battling to contain internal implosions before voting day, and the other struggling to reconcile its foundational ideology with the compromises of coalition governance.
