Signature fraud claims against Zuma’s MK party may imperil poll legitimacy

Former president Jacob Zuma addresses uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party supporters in Durban on 27 March 2024. (Photo: Gallo Images / Darren Stewart)

By Lerato Mutsila

28 Apr 2024

Former president Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto Wesizwe party is unlikely to be affected at the polls by its expulsion of high-ranking members. However, allegations that it forged supporters’ signatures could threaten the legitimacy of the elections.

With the national and provincial elections only 30 days away, fresh controversy has erupted around one of South Africa’s newest and most headline-grabbing parties, former president Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto Wesizwe party (MK).

On Friday, 26 April, the party announced it had expelled five of its members, including Jabulani Khumalo, who registered the party with the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) last year and was considered the party leader until Zuma threw his hat in the ring as the fledgling party’s presidential hopeful.

The party said that a National Core Leadership meeting revealed that the MK party had been infiltrated by external forces who sought to destabilise it. As such, Khumalo was expelled alongside treasurer-general Rochelle Davidson, Ray Khumalo, Bheki Manzini and Lebo Moepeng.

Three of the expelled members were high on the party’s election candidate list, with Jabulani Khumalo appearing second, Moepeng fourth and Davidson eighth.

signature fraud mk party zuma Former president Jacob Zuma addresses uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party supporters in Durban on 27 March 2024. (Photo: Gallo Images / Darren Stewart)

The MK party did not reveal exactly what motivated the purge, but claimed it was in the name of “patriotic South Africans that want to see change”.

“We urge all MK members to be disciplined and trust the leadership as we work towards gaining support for a campaign that will emancipate the downtrodden people of our country,” the party said.

The Sunday Times quoted a source who said Jabulani Khumalo had been raising funds for the party, but those funds never reached its coffers.

Party spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndlela told the newspaper that Khumalo had recently acquired new cars and had gone from having one bodyguard to four. Sunday Times said Khumalo did not answer calls or respond to questions. Daily Maverick was unable to reach him at the time of writing.

Earlier in April, the party announced the “strategic redeployment” of its youth league leaders, including the league’s outspoken national coordinator Bonginkosi Khanyile, his deputy, Thapelo Maisha, interim secretary-general Gaan Cibane and Gauteng coordinator Philani Gazuzu Nduli.

Signature ‘fraud’

On Sunday, City Press reported on allegations that the MK party had forged thousands of signatures to register for the elections.

According to the publication, a former senior MK party official, Lennox Ntsodo, filed an affidavit with the Western Cape police claiming that the MK party embarked on a widespread campaign to forge signatures to meet the IEC’s 15,000 threshold to appear on the election ballot.

City Press reported that Ntsodo claimed that he recruited about 20 people to help in a mass drive to forge signatures after the IEC rejected the party’s initial application for registration in 2023 over concerns that signatures were fraudulent.

Ntsodo requested not to be prosecuted for his admission in line with section 204 of the Criminal Procedure Act and has asked that he and his family be placed in witness protection.

City Press reported that MK took ID numbers, names and cellphone numbers from a City of Cape Town jobseekers’ database and forged the corresponding signatures before submitting them to the IEC. The publication called 15 people on the MK party’s supporter list; 14 denied they had signed the list.

Signs of trouble for MK?

The purge of party members and the signature forgery scandal came as the MK party’s support has been growing, with the latest Ipsos poll showing that if an election were to be held tomorrow the party would garner 8.4% of the national vote, shooting up to fourth position and beating all other newly established parties.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Zuma’s MK party and unhappy voters whack ANC to 40.2% in latest Ipsos poll

Questions have arisen about whether the controversies will dent the party’s growing support.

Political analyst and Rivonia Circle director Tessa Dooms said the purge was unlikely to adversely affect the MK party’s prospects at the polls. Dooms said the MK party reminded her of the Congress of the People (Cope) when it was first presented as an alternative to the ruling party in 2008.

Dooms said that similar to Cope, the MK party was one of the big bona fide breakaways from the ANC.

“It’s eerily similar to the Cope moment in that Cope also had the leadership faction earlier on before they even went to the elections. To this day, Cope had the biggest showing in the first election for a newcoming party after 1994, with over 1.3 million votes and 30 seats in Parliament…

“Even with those factional battles, they still did something extraordinary in terms of their [showing]. I don’t think we should link what happened within the MK party and structures to the sentiment that might drive voters out. I think people who are voting for the MK party aren’t members; they are largely doing it because it’s a protest vote against the ANC,” Dooms said.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Elections 2024

In a press conference earlier in April, the IEC admitted that it only checked whether the ID numbers on the party supporter lists matched those of registered voters, while it did not have the capacity to verify the authenticity of signatures.

Grave implications

If the allegations against the MK party are proven correct, they could have grave implications for the legitimacy of the elections, potentially bringing the elections into disrepute.

The IEC has remained mum on the issue, stating only that it would refer it to Parliament to determine whether the signatures had been obtained fraudulently.

This is not the first time that the legitimacy of supporters’ signatures has been questioned. Last week, Economic Freedom Fighter (EFF) leader Julius Malema questioned the authenticity of the signatures submitted by Mmusi Maimane’s Build One South Africa.

The EFF said it had approached the IEC about the issue.

Dooms said she was interested to see whether the IEC had responded to the Red Berets’ request to close the loopholes regarding unverified signatures. She called on the commission to be proactive in responding to the likelihood of fraudulent signature submissions.

In the instance that the allegations are true, Dooms said, “The answer that the election is too soon to do anything about it is jeopardising the credibility of the election. That the election is free, fair and credible is more important than that the election is soon.”

Dooms added that according to the Constitution, the election could be held as late as mid-August and that the IEC could look at postponing the vote to deal with the issues.

“I really think it is important for us that it has to be credible because we don’t want a situation where after the election, there are questions raised about it. I think the IEC must respond to this question about why the idea of postponing the election or why [the electoral timetable] is used as a reason that we don’t have time when in reality we do have time,” Dooms said.

Daily Maverick asked the IEC for comment on the allegations of signature forgery levelled at the MK party, but the commission had yet to respond at the time of publication. DM

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Signature ‘fraud’

Signs of trouble for MK?

Grave implications