Former president Jacob Zuma says he will fight to regain his African National Congress membership and hopes the ANC and uMkhonto weSizwe party will one day merge.
Zuma spoke on Saturday at the launch of a book on the life of his first wife, Sizakele Khumalo-Zuma, in Inanda north of Durban.
The ANC officially cut ties with the MK party leader in July 2024. The party’s national disciplinary committee resolved to expel him after a disciplinary hearing held in his absence. The ANC accused the former president of contravening party rules by forming the MK party and indicating he would vote for it while remaining an ANC member. The party said his failure to campaign or vote for the ANC breached its constitution.
Zuma, who was an ANC member for six decades and led the party for two terms, insists he remains a member. He said he would take the matter to court if the party tries to remove his membership.
“I cannot abandon such honest leaders and pretend as if I was never part of them, as if they never influenced me,” Zuma said. He added that once he emerges from the ANC, the two parties could become one.
MK party spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela said in June 2025 that the party would support Zuma in the matter. He said the party’s constitution allows for dual membership in exceptional circumstances.
This is not the first time Zuma has demanded reinstatement. In January 2025, his lawyers wrote to ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula arguing that his expulsion was unlawful and threatening legal action if the party did not respond.
In May 2024, Zuma said he would “die in the ANC,” acknowledging at the time that he was also a member of the MK party.
The MK party drew significant support from the ANC in recent elections. In December 2025, President Cyril Ramaphosa acknowledged that the MK party siphoned support from the ANC, contributing to its electoral decline. In January 2026, former president Thabo Mbeki suggested that elements of the apartheid government’s security system were activated to deliver the MK party’s electoral success at the ANC’s expense.