Former president Jacob Zuma's Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party has appointed the former Police Minister and ANC member Nathi Nhleko as its national organiser ahead of the 2024 national and provincial elections.
This is despite the party initially denying that he had joined MKP and calling it to be fake news.
He was seen in some of the strategic meetings that the MKP had as the elections loomed.
Last month, Nhleko tendered his resignation from the ANC, citing the party's secretary-general Fikile Mbalula as among his reasons for his decision to walk away.
"I resign from this African National Congress as its current values and principles are not aligned with mine," he said.
Nhleko's appointment follows the likes of former ANC MPL Mervyn Dirks and Areta co-founder Nkosentsha Shezi, who joined the MKP recently.
Dirks was expelled by the ANC after joining the MK Party, and Shezi, who is an ally of Zuma, resigned from the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) to join the MK Party.
According to the party, this is to ensure that the organisation’s campaign machinery strategy is for a two-thirds majority.
In a deployment letter, MKP further requested that all provincial convenors and coordinators, including the national structures, adhere to an attitude of discipline and more so that there be collaboration and integration of all existing provincial structures to advance the organisation towards the two-thirds.
In his resignation letter, he said it was "painful" to see the ANC turn into a party he no longer recognised, the ANC whose only aspiration was to liberate the people.
Nhleko resigned from the ANC a month after his fallout with Mbalula after the secretary-general said the ANC had lied to Parliament about the Nkandla report to protect the then president Zuma.
In January, during the ANC campaign trail and the eve of the January 8 statement delivery in Mpumalanga, Mbalula publicly admitted that the ANC had lied about the “swimming pool being a fire pool” at Nkandla, the homestead of Zuma in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN).
Following that, Nhleko slammed Mbalula, describing him as the worst secretary-general in the ANC's 112-year history.
Meanwhile, MKP and the ANC have been at loggerheads in court over the registration and trademark of MK.
But Zuma's MK won the first case after the Johannesburg High Court declared it lawful and constitutional on Tuesday.
The logo and name case kicked off on Wednesday in Durban and judgment is yet to be delivered.
kamogelo.moichela@iol.co.za
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