The ANC officially cut ties with the MK party leader in July 2024.
Former president Jacob Zuma says he will fight tooth and nail to regain his ANC membership, even going to court to achieve his goal of being reinstated as a member of his former party and hopes the ANC and uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party will one day merge.
Zuma made the remarks during the launch of a book on the life of his first wife, Sizakele Khumalo-Zuma, in Inanda, north of Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, on Saturday, 14 February 2026.
Cutting ties
The ANC officially cut ties with the MK party leader in July 2024 after the party’s national disciplinary committee (NDC) resolved to expel him following a disciplinary hearing held on 23 July in his absence.
This after the ANC accused the former president of contravening rule 25 of the party’s constitution by forming the MK party and that he would vote with the MK party, which made its public debut in Soweto on 16 December 2023 but would remain a member of the ANC.
According to the party, Zuma’s failure to campaign or vote for the ANC was tantamount to a breach of rule 25 of the party’s constitution.
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ANC membership
During the gathering, Zuma, who was a member of the ANC for six decades and led the party for two terms, the former president insists he remains a member of the ANC, according to the SABC.
“I said I won’t do anything for the ANC, but my membership card will remain there. It won’t be erased. If they try to remove it, I’ll take them to court. Cattle will be sold. Why did I say that? Because I cannot abandon such honest leaders and pretend as if I was never part of them, as if they never influenced me.
“So I want to emerge from the ANC. Once they have won, we will take it and put it into the MKP and become one thing,” Zuma said.
Supporting Zuma
MK party national spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela Ndhlela in June 2025 said the party would support Zuma in the matter.
“The MK Party is fully behind president Zuma in this ground-breaking case, which will hopefully see his dual membership of the MK party and the real ANC, not the sell-out ANC of [Cyril] Ramaphosa, restored.
“Such an outcome will bring us closer to the much-needed unity of black people in the centuries-old struggle for total liberation and the return of the land to its rightful owners, the African people as a whole,” Ndhlela said.
Ndhlela added the MK party’s constitution allows for dual membership in exceptional circumstances.
MK party success
In December 2025, in a rare moment of candour, President Cyril Ramaphosa acknowledged that Zuma’s MK party siphoned support from the ANC, directly contributing to its electoral decline and underscoring the former president’s role enduring role as a destabilising force within the movement.
However, in January 2026, former president Thabo Mbeki stirred debate, claiming the apartheid government’s national security management system was “activated” to deliver Zuma’s MK party’s electoral success to the detriment of the ANC.
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ANC membership demand
This is not the first time that Zuma demanded to be reinstated as a member of the ANC after being expelled from the party.
In January, Zuma’s lawyers wrote to ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula saying his expulsion as a member was “unlawful”.
In a letter dated 8 January, the lawyers said Zuma will pursue legal action if the ANC fails to address his concerns and reinstate him by 31 January 2025.
“We are instructed to inform you that the aforesaid expulsion was illegal and/or in breach of both the ANC constitution and/or the constitution of the Republic of South Africa for various grounds,” his lawyers, KMNS attorneys, argued.
‘Die in ANC’
In May 2024, Zuma said he would “die in the ANC”.
“I’ve sacrificed my life. I was ready to die. I went to prison. I went into exile, and some of the people who are leading – they don’t even know what exile is all about. They don’t know; they’ve never been in prison.
“I have contributed to this ANC. If you listen to my terminology, I said I will die in the ANC,” Zuma said while acknowledging he is a member of the MK party.
During Zuma’s tenure as president, he was found to be in breach of the constitution.