MK Party pulls Mpumalanga rally and manifesto launch, orders probe into missing names on IEC councillor lists

The uMkhonto weSizwe Party has cancelled the Siyathatha rally at which it was to launch its local government election manifesto, and has ordered an urgent independent investigation into discrepancies in the final councillor candidate lists published by the Electoral Commission of South Africa.

As IOL reported on 14 October, the rally had been set for Mpumalanga on Sunday. The party says the cancellation frees resources for ward-level campaigning and community engagement ahead of the November 4 municipal elections, and that the manifesto, which it calls the People’s Mandate, will instead be sent electronically to party structures and members on 15 October.

Party spokesperson Sifiso Mahlangu said the investigation’s findings would go to the party presidency for consideration, and that leaders would engage directly with affected ward candidates. Candidates whose names were omitted or inadvertently left off the IEC’s final list will be prioritised for the first available positions, subject to the party’s processes and requirements.

The party has also resolved to set up proportional representation councillor deployment committees at national, provincial and regional levels to finalise the deployment of councillors from its PR lists.

Candidate lists are the machinery of a municipal election. The IEC publishes final lists once nomination windows close, and a name that does not appear on the published list cannot ordinarily be voted for on that party’s ticket. For a party contesting its first full municipal round, a gap between who was nominated at community level and who appears on the ballot paper is a practical problem in the wards where it bites. The party says the candidates it is dealing with were nominated through community meetings.

Alongside the list dispute, the party’s leader, former president Jacob Zuma, remains under medical care at Netcare St Anne’s Hospital in Pietermaritzburg. He was admitted last week after reportedly falling ill during an MK Party campaign event in uMsinga, KwaZulu-Natal, which the party described at the time as a routine medical check-up.

Speculation about his condition followed reports that he had been discharged and had returned to his Nkandla home. On Tuesday the Jacob Zuma Foundation dismissed those reports and said he was still in hospital. Foundation spokesperson Mzwanele Manyi said Zuma was in good spirits, based on information from someone who had spoken to him and spent time with him. The foundation has asked for his privacy and dignity to be respected while he receives care.

The party is now putting its remaining campaign weeks into a national household-level drive it calls Molo Makhelwane, running until midnight on 3 November, the eve of the poll. Structures, councillor candidates and volunteers are to visit households, engage churches and hear residents’ concerns across cities, townships, farms and villages.

“The streets must now be green!” Mahlangu said, and the party has told members that “Green Fridays become Green Every Day!”. Its candidates and volunteers, it says, must be visible in communities as it works to strengthen its relationship with residents.