Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla on her possible return to the MK party

Zuma-Sambudla says she is pleased with the MK party's performance in the local government elections Former president Jacob Zuma’s daughter, Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla says she has not completely closed the door on returning to the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK party). Zuma-Sambudla was expelled from the party earlier this year after becoming embroiled in several scandals. There has been some speculation about her political career, with some suggesting that she would join another political party. Zuma-Sambudla helped form the MK party with her father in 2023 and has always been seen as her father’s biggest supporter. Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla on return to MK party The Citizen spoke to her outside the Durban High Court on Friday. Asked if she would return to the MK party, Zuma-Sambudla said that “time will tell”. However, she said that even though she is not currently a member of the MK party, she is happy with the performance of the party in the latest local government elections. “I think MK party is doing pretty well,” she said. Regarding the criminal charges she is facing around the 2021 unrest, Zuma-Sambudla said she feels she is being targeted by the state because of her father’s political career. “He is a great man – so the system is against him,” she said. Jacob Zuma on MK party results Meanwhile, Zuma on Friday told reporters that he had always known that the MK party would “win” KZN. “We have won KZN. It’s as simple as that… you should be saying thank you for what you did, because you told us that,” he said. Zuma also said his party is open to coalition talks with other parties. “We are open, that is what people do, because we want to rule the country,” he said. eThekwini mayoral candidate Despite Zuma’s openness to coalition talks, his mayoral candidate in the City of eThekwini, Mxolisi Phakathi, told The Citizen on Wednesday that he hopes the MK party governs the city without coalition partners. “I don’t want to speak [about a] coalition because we have not spoken about coalitions. What we are saying is that we are going out there to take this municipality outright as the MK, so we have not spoken about a coalition. “Remember we are an organisation, it’s not a one-man show. The organisation collective decides.” Despite the MK party’s good performance in KwaZulu-Natal, the DA’s chairperson in the province, Dean Macpherson, told The Citizen on Thursday that he believes Zuma’s party has underperformed compared to what it achieved in the 2024 national election. “The growing story out of this election is that, actually, the MK has underperformed compared to 2024, and I think that we are seeing that in eThekwini. We saw that in uMngeni and we are seeing it in many parts of the province,” he said.