Cape Town – Former president Thabo Mbeki has sparked controversy ahead of local elections by claiming that remnants of the apartheid-era National Security Management System (NSMS) were “activated” to engineer the electoral rise of Jacob Zuma’s MK party at the expense of the ANC.
Speaking at a uMkhonto weSizwe veterans’ conference in Bloemfontein, Mbeki questioned the sudden surge in MK support — particularly in KwaZulu-Natal, where it became the largest party with 45% of the vote — arguing that old security networks were never fully dismantled.
Mbeki suggested that the same forces which once controlled IFP-aligned hostels during periods of political violence now influence communities backing the MK party, implying continuity of covert control structures.
“You have a new organisation, called the MK party, that suddenly gets this huge support in KZN, and Gauteng a bit, Mpumalanga a bit. Why?” Mbeki asked.
“Suddenly, the ANC drops. Why has this population suddenly decided to abandon the ANC? The activation of the NSMS, which produced that result, was because that machinery had never been dismantled.”
He added: “You remember during this so-called war on war, black on black violence, those were IFP hostels. They were clash, big clash with the ANC communities, IFP decide themselves,” Mbeki said.
“These are IFP hostels. But what happened in 2024? They all abandoned the IFP and went with the MK party. Why? It’s because they are controlled by the same person.
“It’s the same person who controlled them when they were IFP hostels. The same person who controlled them when they were IFP hostels, the same person who controls them today as MK hostels, MK party hostels.”
The MK party, now polling as South Africa’s third-largest party with 15% support nationally, rejected the claims as reckless and dismissive of voters’ agency, accusing Mbeki of delegitimising electoral choices that go against the ANC.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
