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Colleen Makhubele new MK chief whip – Mzwanele Manyi removed in ongoing leadership shifts

Colleen Makhubele new MK chief whip – Mzwanele Manyi removed in ongoing leadership shifts
Nonkululeko Njilo
By Nonkululeko Njilo
27 May 2025
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Signs of instability persist within the uMkhonto Wesizwe party, as it makes yet another change to its parliamentary leadership.

When the uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party was formed in December 2023, just five months before the general elections, without clear policies or a defined leadership structure, it was expected that it would face challenges. Seventeen months later, leadership struggles persist.   

On Tuesday, 27 May, the party removed Mzwanele Manyi as its chief whip, nine months after he took up the position.  

Party deputy president and caucus leader John Hlophe, in a letter to Manyi, said: “I am writing to inform you that, with immediate effect, you are hereby relieved of your duties… This decision was made with careful consideration and in the interest of advancing the collective goals and objectives of our party.”

Manyi’s removal comes three months after he and Hlophe were at loggerheads and even became physical over a Sona speech delivered by Hlophe. At the time of the incident, some party members claimed Hlophe was set up by being given a poorly crafted Sona debate speech at the last minute after he had long prepared his address. 

In a statement, however, the party dismissed this claim, saying that it was “disingenuous to characterise internal party discussions as a ‘fight,’ let alone a physical confrontation”, adding that the distortions served only to mislead the public and undermine the MK Party’s credibility and its principles of discipline.   

‘It was inevitable'


An MK party national high command member who spoke to Daily Maverick on condition of anonymity on Tuesday, said: “It was long coming. Indications were there post the Sona debate when this issue was ventilated in our meeting. 

“During the discussion there was a suggestion he [Manyi] was out of his reach because he could not take [Julius] Malema head on and the EFF was dominating us if they were the opposition, but some people were quite supportive of him,” he said.

While Manyi had the support of many people, he was also not on good terms with the party’s secretary-general, Floyd Shivambu.

Read more: State of the MK nation – how Zuma’s uMkhonto Wesizwe party stacks up ahead of Sona 2025

The high command member said Hlophe had been “brutal” in dealing with those who did not see eye to eye with him. 

In 2024, former MK Mpumalanga convenor Mary Phadi publicly accused Hlophe of sexual harassment, claims which she said she had been prepared to take to court.  

Before making the allegations public, Phadi was suspended from the party for allegedly misappropriating party funds, claims she denied, suggesting this had been an attempt to purge her. 

As the sexual harassment allegations gained momentum, with Hlophe threatening to sue Phadi, she was expelled from the party. She had already been replaced by impeached former Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane, who defected from the Economic Freedom Fighters to MK in October 2024.  

Manyi had not responded to requests for comment by the time of publishing. He was the party’s second chief whip, having succeeded Sihle Ngubane, who was abruptly removed from the role in August 2024.

The party has developed a reputation for the swift removal of its leaders. Among the first to be ousted was co-founder Jabulani Khumalo. In a separate incident, 11 members were expelled from Parliament and the party under similar abrupt circumstances.

Two of the most crucial positions in any political party are the secretary-general, often seen as the engine of the party, and the treasurer-general. These two positions alone have been occupied by eight people in the space of a year, which is rare among South African political parties.  

Read more: MK party faces backlash over unfulfilled promise to empower traditional leaders in run-up to 2026 elections

Manyi’s replacement


Manyi will be replaced by party newcomer Colleen Makhubele, who was sworn in at Parliament four months ago.  

Makhubele was the president of political group the South African Rainbow Alliance (Sara), which was formed a few months before the 29 May 2024 elections.

As was expected, the party didn’t do well. It received only 12,450 votes across the country – just 0.03% – and later claimed the 2024 election was rigged.

Before leading Sara, Makhubele was a councillor for the Congress of the People (Cope) in the City of Johannesburg, where she also served as Speaker of the Council.

She joined Cope in 2021, but was removed in November 2023 while still serving as speaker. This came after she launched Sara without telling Cope’s leadership.

Earlier, Cope had suspended her for voting to remove the then Johannesburg speaker, the DA’s Vasco da Gama. But Cope leader Mosiuoa Lekota, who saw her as a protégé, brought her back. DM

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