The Umkhonto we Sizwe Party has won its first-ever municipality in its first-ever local government election.
Counting is complete in the Richmond Local Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal, with the MK Party winning 56% of the votes. It is a clean, outright majority, no coalition, no negotiation, no begging for partners.
For a party that is less than two years old, it is a historic breakthrough. Richmond is now MK territory.
“The MK Party has also received the most votes in eThekwini Municipality in KZN. However, it has fallen short of a majority, receiving 32 percent of the vote,” said the party’s provincial spokesperson, Mkhuseli Mlengane.
That eThekwini result is just as significant. South Africa’s third-largest metro, the economic heart of KwaZulu-Natal, has put MK first, even if it has not given it outright control. The party that was accused of being a protest movement is now the leading force in the province’s biggest city.
And MK’s leadership says this time, it will not let victory be taken away.
First deputy president Duduzane Zuma says the parties running KwaZulu-Natal’s provincial government and municipalities should not be in power.
Speaking to journalists on Thursday as local election results came in, Zuma said MK had been robbed of power in 2024 by rivals who ganged up against it.
“Last time, during the negotiations, we were in a period of contesting the results, so there was a bit of instability when it came to discussions. We were saying, guys, we’re outright winners, why should we be speaking to anybody? At the same time, you had parties that grouped together and managed to pull the rug from under our feet, which is exactly what happened,” Zuma said.
“The parties governing local government in KZN and our municipalities should not be there, as per the numbers the MK got last time out,” he said.
In the 2024 provincial election, MK won 45.35% of the vote in KwaZulu-Natal. That gave it 37 of the 80 seats in the provincial legislature, short of the 41 needed for a majority.
The IFP, ANC, DA and NFP then formed a coalition government with a majority in the legislature, which elected the IFP’s Thami Ntuli as premier.
The municipal councils Zuma referred to were elected in 2021, before MK existed. Jacob Zuma launched the party in December 2023.
Zuma said MK still had unanswered questions about the 2024 vote.
“We need data, information. Right now we’re not happy because we don’t have the information. We have the questions. We’ve already gone to court. We still need to know what happened to our votes?” he said.
MK went to the Electoral Court in 2024 to have the general election results set aside, alleging serious irregularities. It withdrew the case in July 2024, saying it would gather more evidence of vote rigging. The IEC had told the court that MK failed to lodge an objection as the law required.
This time, Zuma says, MK is watching every step.
“If everything goes according to plan, if everything is seamless, no glitches, we won’t have any complaints,” he said.
He said MK was more prepared for coalition talks this time.
“This time out, we’re confident. We’ve engaged. Failing that, we’ve got our teams in place. We’re prepared. Whatever conversations we need to have with people who are like-minded, who share the same values and the same policies, obviously to bring black people, the majority, out of poverty and to get this country to be a first-world anchor country, those are the people we’ll speak to,” Zuma said.
MK was leading the provincial count with 33.03% at about 10.30am on Thursday, with 16% of voting districts counted.