Illustrative image: MK party president Jacob Zuma (left). (Photo: Darren Stewart / Gallo Images) | Former MK party secretary-general Floyd Shivambu. (Photo: Elias Mbuwane / Gallo Images)
When Floyd Shivambu announced a media briefing through a document that didn’t include the official uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party letterhead, it was clear he was on his way out. What was uncertain was the direction he would take next.
On Thursday, 19 June 2025, Shivambu announced that over the coming months he would consult various communities and groups to gauge whether he should launch his own political party.
This he will do alongside an interim structure that he will announce next week, all while remaining a member of the official opposition party, whose cap he wore on Thursday before addressing journalists in Midrand.
Shivambu’s decision comes two weeks after he was removed as MK party secretary-general. Speaking about the reasons for his removal, Shivambu said he was accused of wanting to overthrow the party’s leader and founder, Jacob Zuma.
Shivambu claimed he was also accused of accumulating supernatural powers to make people disappear. This was done through two fake intelligence reports, he said.
Read more: How Floyd Shivambu caused his own MK party downfall
Shivambu was appointed as secretary-general in November 2024 as the MK party prepared to mark its first anniversary in December.
During this period, concerns surfaced over his alleged attempts to centralise financial control of the party, with claims that he sought sole authority over its funds.
On Thursday, Shivambu claimed that Zuma's advisors had been stealing millions from the organisation and that his leadership was being undermined by those around him.
Prior to the announcement of the press conference, it was already clear that Shivambu’s future in the party hung in the balance, after Zuma’s scathing speech on Monday, June 16, in which he took a veiled swipe at Shivambu, saying the party would not beg anybody when they did wrong, no matter how popular they were.
Zuma went further, suggesting that all the former secretaries had in fact been involved in some wrongdoing.
Read more: Former MK party secretaries did many ‘wrong things’, says Zuma after Shivambu’s axing
Shivambu’s move was hardly unexpected, given the internal tensions within the party and his controversial Easter Weekend visit to fugitive pastor Shepherd Bushiri’s church in Malawi, a turning point that marked the beginning of his downfall.
The MK party said he undertook the visit in his personal capacity, without the mandate or knowledge of the party. Shivambu could have apologised. Instead, he doubled down.
Shivambu’s redeployment as secretary-general was announced by the party on 3 June, just over nine months after he left his position as deputy president of the EFF, the party he formed with Julius Malema, to join MK.
The party said Shivambu would be redeployed to Parliament where he was due to be sworn in as an MP soon, but this did not happen.
Read more: Shivambu still at odds with MK leadership over visit to fugitive pastor Shepherd Bushiri
On Thursday, Shivambu said it was because those close to Zuma had in fact blocked his move using a second intelligence report, which found he would use his power to take over the party.
Shivambu told journalists that the report included claims of “WhatsApp conversations between me and someone else where I’m reported to be saying that, ‘Ja, I’m going to Parliament now to take over the party, and I’ve got money from Stellenbosch.’”
When Shivambu was announced as the latest member of the MK party in Sandton in August 2024, Zuma sang his praises, saying he was an honest man who met him while he was a young man in the ANC Youth League, the very same Youth League Shivambu was expelled from by the ANC under Zuma’s leadership.
When he joined the MK party, Shivambu said it was the most politically sound decision he had ever made.
Quizzed about this on Thursday, he stood by the decision, saying he had “tremendous respect for Zuma” and that he had learnt more from him in the past six months than he did as a deputy president of EFF in a decade. DM