MK: sources

Every fact on the MK page with its full citation: the document, the page or section, and the date. The dates things were last checked live here rather than on the page itself. Candidates for the 4 November 2026 election are on the IEC’s certified candidate lists and the party’s website.

Leader shown: Jacob Zuma, President, since April 2024. Source: Jacob Zuma Announces Major MK Party Leadership Changes and Organisational Reconfiguration, 6 August 2026

Founded: 16 December 2023. Source: Statement by President Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma on the establishment of uMkhonto weSizwe Party structures, 'When we announced our existence as a political party on the 16th of December 2023'; registration on 7 September 2023 from Government Gazette 49345, General..., 22 August 2024

The header tiles use the IEC results and the offices listed under Results and offices below.

What it promises

No 2026 local government manifesto had been published by 13 October 2026. On 13 October 2026 the party said it would send its 2026 manifesto to its structures and members electronically on 15 October 2026. The page is updated when one appears.

Manifesto shown: The People's Mandate: A Manifesto Towards a Developmental Agenda (launched 18 May 2024 at Orlando Stadium, Soweto (the 'People's Mandate' rally); 21 pages).

The five are the first five items of the first list of the manifesto's own commitments, leaving aside any list inside a foreword or leader's message, in the manifesto's own order. Taken from Preamble, p. 3, items 1 to 5 of the eight-point list introduced 'We declare that we will defeat this neo-apartheid by:'.. The short heading on each commitment is the site’s plain-language label; the quoted words are the manifesto’s own.

Where it stands

Water and electricity

No published position found in the documents checked, as at 13 October 2026, on: Unpaid household electricity debts should be collected, not cancelled.

Housing and land

No published position found in the documents checked, as at 13 October 2026, on: The state should give a free house to every household that cannot afford to buy one, not only the poorest.; The law should make it quicker to remove people who have recently moved onto land without permission.

Crime and policing

No published position found in the documents checked, as at 13 October 2026, on: Provinces should be allowed to run their own police services that can investigate crime, alongside the national police.

Foreign nationals

No published position found in the documents checked, as at 13 October 2026, on: Foreign nationals without legal status should get only emergency care at public clinics and hospitals.

Jobs, grants and tax

No published position found in the documents checked, as at 13 October 2026, on: Yearly increases to the national minimum wage should be no more than about the rate of inflation.; Labour laws should make it easier for businesses to hire and dismiss workers.; Municipalities should employ their security guards, cleaners and other contract workers directly, rather than through contractors.

Councils and government

No published position found in the documents checked, as at 13 October 2026, on: Party leaders outside the council should have a say in who gets senior municipal jobs such as municipal manager.; Parties should be required by law to make women at least half of their candidates.

National questions

No published position found in the documents checked, as at 13 October 2026, on: The school's governing body should have the final say on the language the school teaches in.

Where it leans and party similarity

The dials and the radar use the positions listed above; each dial is the average of the party’s positions on its statements. Statements behind each dial: Economy: 5 of 7 statements; Services: 2 of 4 statements; Redistribution: 5 of 6 statements; Order and borders: 2 of 4 statements; Where power sits: 2 of 4 statements.

Party similarity is scored the way the quiz scores a person, on the statements where both parties have a published position: EFF: 18 shared statements; ANC: 18 shared statements; PA: 13 shared statements; IFP: 14 shared statements; ActionSA: 16 shared statements; DA: 18 shared statements; FF Plus: 17 shared statements.

Results

National elections: share of the national ballot. Local elections: share of the proportional-representation ballot across all municipalities.

2024 provincial vote

Source: IEC 2024 Provincial Election, Results Report - Eastern Cape

Provincial legislature seats in 2024: 58 across the nine legislatures.

Offices

Offices as at 13 October 2026. Mayoralties may change after the 4 November 2026 local election; this page is updated once the new councils have met.

In its own words

The site applies no ideology label of its own; the quotation is the party’s own description of itself, from its founding document, constitution or values page. From the party's About page; its constitution (a 48 MB scan) could not be read.

Source: About MK, unheaded closing text after the 'Mission' section

Facts

Funding

Totals, April 2021 to March 2025: public funding R30.9 million; declared donations R380,555.

Parties must tell the IEC about any donor who gives more than R100,000 a year (R200,000 a year since August 2025). Smaller gifts are not made public. Parties with seats in Parliament or a provincial legislature also receive public money from the Represented Political Parties' Fund (renamed the Political Representatives Fund in 2024), shown as public funding. Neither figure is the party's total income. The 2024/25 year is the latest covered by an IEC annual report; the IEC's quarterly reports for April 2025 onwards are on the IEC's political funding page, and these figures are updated when the next annual report appears.

Reports: Political Party Funding 2022 Annual Report, 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022; IEC Political Party Funding Annual Report for 2022/23, as reported by Cape Times/Sunday Independent...; Political Party Funding Annual Report 2024, 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024; Political Funding Report 2025, financial year ended 31 March 2025; IEC quarterly disclosure statements Q1 to Q4 2022/23.