Asinavalo singer Gamelihle Mbuyane quits ANC songs for MK Party council seat in Mbombela

Gamelihle Mbuyane, the singer whose anthems once filled ANC rallies, is contesting a proportional representation council seat in the City of Mbombela for Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe Party. He is expected to cast his vote at the Multipurpose Centre in Malekutu, Ward 37, at 7.30am on Wednesday, November 4.

As Sunday World reported on October 30, Mbuyane resigned from the ANC in 2024 and demanded the party stop using his music. He is now on the MK Party’s municipal PR list in Mpumalanga’s capital, where the ANC is defending its governing record.

His best-known compositions include Asinavalo, Asiwafuni Amagwala and Unity Maqabane (Phakama Ramaphosa). The last became closely associated with Ramaphosa’s rise within the governing party. His work had earlier been associated with the faction sympathetic to Zuma, and in January 2023 he publicly embraced Ramaphosa’s leadership, arguing that the ANC was bigger than any individual president and urging members to overcome their divisions.

On January 10, 2024, he submitted his resignation to ANC leadership, including Mpumalanga provincial chairperson Mandla Ndlovu, provincial secretary Muzi Chirwa and national secretary-general Fikile Mbalula. The resignation landed days before the ANC’s 112th-anniversary celebrations in Mpumalanga. In it he instructed the party to stop using his songs and recordings featuring his voice in political campaigns, naming the three compositions, and warned that continued use could prompt legal action under copyright legislation. The letter did not give a detailed explanation for his departure, and he indicated he would give reasons later if necessary. Whether the party subsequently reached an agreement with him over the recordings remains unclear.

Mbuyane said his decision to contest was driven by conditions facing residents in townships and rural communities. “Local government is the level closest to daily life, where people are affected by many direct challenges,” he said. “A new voice is needed to be instrumental in shaping the state of the city, which is currently affected by infrastructure development challenges and unemployment.”

He identified water shortages, deteriorating township roads, neglected waste areas, unemployment and limited economic opportunities as the challenges demanding urgent intervention. He said the MK Party would prioritise water provision, township road infrastructure, the rehabilitation of neglected areas, township economic development and rural agricultural programmes. “We believe that MKP will enable the programmes which the municipality should have been doing,” he said, arguing that the work would give practical meaning to the party’s radical economic transformation agenda.

He also put accountability at the centre of his pitch. “Accountability will be the name of the game in the city. Each councillor should account,” he said.

Mbuyane is not the MK Party’s ward candidate in Ward 37. He is seeking election through the party’s municipal proportional representation list, so his prospects depend on the MK Party’s share of the municipal vote and his position on that list. Voters in Malekutu will not choose him by name on the ward ballot, but the party’s council representation could decide whether he takes a seat.

The MK Party did not exist when the previous municipal elections were held in 2021. It entered the contest after emerging as a significant electoral force in 2024, and in Mbombela it joins the Economic Freedom Fighters, the Democratic Alliance and other challengers competing for voters dissatisfied with the ANC.

“We want our people to have a good story to tell and liberate themselves from all the poor services they’ve been receiving,” Mbuyane said.

For a performer whose political influence was measured by crowds singing along, the test now is whether applause turns into votes. Mbombela’s voters decide on Wednesday.