Mkhwebane votes early in Thembisile Hani while her MK Party fields no mayoral candidate there

Busisiwe Mkhwebane casts her special vote on Monday, November 2, at Ematjeni Higher Primary School in Thembisile Hani Local Municipality, two days before most residents of Ward 28 queue at the same school to decide who runs the council that supplies their water, empties their refuse and keeps their toilets flushing.

That is the substance of the contest she is asking people to turn out for. The MK Party’s Mpumalanga provincial leader told Sunday World that the local government elections on 4 November are about “clean drinking water, electricity, flushing toilets, no sewage spillages, no dumping, enforcement of bylaws and fighting corruption”. The paper reported her early ballot on 2026-10-30.

Residents in Thembisile Hani know what the gap between those promises and daily life looks like. Water that does not reach the tap, sewage that runs where it should not, refuse that is not collected, bylaws that are not enforced. Those are the conditions Mkhwebane says her party wants voters to put at the centre of the ballot, and they are the conditions the next council will inherit whatever the result.

The numbers on the municipality’s books are the plainest measure of what that council takes on. Municipal financial information for 2024/25 reflects operating revenue of approximately R1 billion against expenditure of R1.1 billion, a deficit of about R93.5 million. Whoever controls the council after 4 November inherits that gap between what the municipality collects and what it spends.

Mkhwebane’s own party enters the ward without an individually designated mayoral contender. She confirmed it directly: “MKP does not have any mayoral candidates besides those in the eight metropolitan municipalities.” The party still contests council seats outside the metros and can take part in mayoral elections that follow, but in Thembisile Hani there is no MK Party name on the table for mayor.

That is the tension a voter has to weigh. A party asking residents to change municipal leadership has not put forward the person it would install to lead the change in this municipality. Mkhwebane’s answer is that the vote itself is the point. “Failure to vote lets others decide, perpetuating poor governance,” she said. “For communities, it means accountability and empowerment. For MKP, it advances the people’s mandate of decolonisation and genuine local change.”

The electoral ground she is working is ANC territory. In 2021 the ANC took 40 of the council’s 64 seats, an outright majority. The EFF was the official opposition with 12 seats, the DA took four, the African Independent People’s Organisation three, and smaller parties and independents shared the rest. On the proportional representation ballot the ANC drew 62.68%, the EFF 19.47% and the DA 5.87%, on a turnout of roughly 40.5%. The MK Party did not exist in time to contest that election.

Its arrival has shifted the ground beneath the EFF rather than the ANC. In June 2025 by-elections in two ANC-held wards in Thembisile Hani, the MK Party finished second ahead of the EFF. In Ward 18 the ANC held with 73.46%, the MK Party took 15.28% and the EFF 8.98%. In Ward 31 the ANC took 69.85%, the MK Party 15.92% and the EFF 10.87%. The ANC stayed comfortably ahead in both.

Mkhwebane’s route to this ballot has been anything but ordinary. Parliament removed her as public protector in September 2023 after adopting the findings of a Section 194 inquiry into her fitness to hold office, which found misconduct and incompetence. She joined the EFF and entered Parliament after the 2024 elections, resigned from the party in October 2024, and emerged as the MK Party’s Mpumalanga leader. Her arrival set off a leadership fight with former provincial leader Mary Phadi that divided party structures. In July 2025 the Mbombela High Court upheld Phadi’s expulsion, clearing the way for Mkhwebane to consolidate. Disputes continued after that, and the party eventually sent senior figures to intervene in its Mpumalanga structures before these elections.

Mkhwebane registered in Ward 28, voting district 54610141, with Ematjeni Higher Primary School as her voting station. Her special vote puts her ballot in ahead of Wednesday’s general polling. Voting early does not decide anything for the residents who will follow her into that school on 4 November, and the questions they carry in with them are the ones the next council will have to answer.

The Enquirer will report the ward-by-ward results in Thembisile Hani and across Mpumalanga as the Electoral Commission releases them.