MK Party says its own candidate lists were manipulated, with the election 35 days away

The MK Party has identified manipulation of its own candidate lists ahead of the November 4 local government elections, with first deputy president Duduzane Zuma saying the party is investigating who moved councillor candidates between ward and proportional representation lists and between regions.

As IOL reported on Wednesday, Zuma said the changes had triggered protests in some areas and that the party had already removed some people from their positions while inquiries continue.

Zuma’s account is the most detailed the party has given so far of a list process that has visibly unsettled its election preparations. Candidate lists are the machinery of a local government campaign. A ward candidate stands in a specific area and is chosen by the voters there. A proportional representation candidate sits on a list and enters a council on the party’s share of the vote. Moving a name from one to the other, or from one region to another, changes who has a realistic chance of holding office. That is why the disputes have produced protests rather than quiet internal grumbling.

Zuma said the lists had passed through several levels of the organisation, including sub-regional, provincial and national structures. He said the party had seen candidates moved between the two list types and between regions.

“I think, one, there is sabotage at play. Two, there’s a massive contestation at play,” he told IOL.

He described the party as an organisation on the rise and said it was being destabilised from outside and from within. The MK Party has not released the number of candidates affected, the regions involved, or the identity of anyone removed. Until it does, the scale of the manipulation cannot be established independently.

Zuma was clear that the investigations will not all conclude before voters go to the polls. “There are ongoing inquiries, investigations into exactly who manipulated lists. We will get the information over the following weeks. Some of it we will deal with before the elections, some only after,” he said.

He also placed part of the explanation inside the party’s own ranks, saying members were positioning themselves and contesting for positions. “There’s a certain maturity that our people need to get to within this organisation,” he said.

The party’s answer to the unrest has been partly disciplinary. Zuma said people had been removed from their positions and that the party would keep examining what happened at each stage of the list process.

Phakathi stays as the eThekwini name

Zuma used the same interview to back Apostle Mxolisi Phakathi as the party’s eThekwini mayoral candidate. Phakathi was named to the position after Zandile Hlophe-Mkhwanazi was removed from it as the party dealt with the list disputes.

Zuma cited Phakathi’s experience in local legislature and described him as a respected leader in his own right. “We believe in him to take us to the next level,” he said.

He acknowledged that members may have preferred other candidates. “Everyone has their own interests, everyone has their own candidate that they’d like to see there for whatever reason,” he said. “People will have to understand that this decision has been made. This is our representative.”

EThekwini is the country’s largest metro by population and the centre of the party’s support base. The mayoral candidate named there carries more weight for the MK Party than the same title would in most other municipalities, and a public split over the name is harder to contain.

The candidate-list disputes are not unique to the MK Party. South African parties routinely fight over list placement, and the disputes often end up in the courts. What is different here is the timing and the public confirmation from the party’s own deputy president that the lists were altered, and that investigations may run past election day.

For a voter in eThekwini, the practical question is simpler than the internal politics. The name on the ballot paper in a ward is the person who will represent that area if the party wins the seat. If candidates were moved between lists and regions without the party’s approval, the voter has no way of knowing from the ballot whether the name in front of them is the one the party intended to field.

Zuma did not say whether the party would publish the outcome of the inquiries, or what would happen to any candidate found to have manipulated a list. The party has not said when the remaining removals and findings will be announced.