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Concerns over the health of former South African President Jacob Zuma have raised questions about the future of uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), the populist party built around him that has redrawn the country’s political landscape.
The 84-year-old was taken to hospital two weeks ago. Since then, MK officials and the Zuma Foundation have circulated conflicting accounts about his condition. The party initially described Zuma as healthy and undergoing routine checks before returning home. That claim was later contradicted by the foundation, which said he remained in hospital and declined to provide regular updates.
In a sign of the impact on the party, MK canceled its flagship Siyathatha rally less than three weeks before South Africa’s municipal elections. The uncertainty has become a political issue because of Zuma’s central role in the party he publicly launched nearly three years ago, after switching from the African National Congress (ANC) ahead of a general election.
MK emerged from the 2024 poll as one of the biggest forces in South African politics, winning nearly 15% of the vote on promises to scrap the constitution, expropriate land without compensation and nationalize banks, insurers and strategic mines. Its performance accelerated the slide of the ANC, once led by Nelson Mandela, which lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since the end of apartheid and was forced to form a coalition government.
Still, the MK’s rise has been punctuated by leadership turmoil, internal purges, and recurring disputes over candidate selection. Zuma’s absence from public campaigning has heightened questions about whether the movement can maintain its momentum without him.
Natasha Marrian, a political analyst at the Bureau for Economic Research, a South African think tank, said the MK party, launched as a breakaway outfit for Zuma supporters who opposed the ANC leadership of President Cyril Ramaphosa, was a Zuma project from the outset. “He is the party’s central drawcard,” she said. “There’s no clear center holding it together in his absence.”
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Zuma’s son, Duduzane, serves as the party’s first deputy president and is widely regarded as a potential successor, but analysts question whether he can replicate the appeal of his father, who led South Africa from 2009 to 2018 before being ousted amid corruption allegations and a wider state capture scandal.
“Duduzane is a completely unknown political figure,” said André Duvenhage, a political analyst at South Africa’s North-West University. “He comes from a business background.”
The ANC may benefit from Zuma’s absence, said Musa Xulu, an independent political analyst, adding that if he remains largely absent from the campaign trail, some ANC voters who followed him could drift back. “The ANC is becoming the biggest beneficiary of Zuma’s current disappearance from public politics. The MK party is Jacob Zuma and Jacob Zuma is the MK,” Xulu said.
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- The ANC secured a legal victory ahead of the 4 November 2026 local government elections when the Constitutional Court ruled in its favour, ordering the electoral commission to reinstate 181 disqualified candidates onto the ballot papers.