MK party’s Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla apologises for social media posts attacking Shivambu

MK party MP Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla has issued an apology for her posts on X criticising the party’s secretary-general Floyd Shivambu.

Seemingly reacting to posts praising Shivambu on Monday, Zuma-Sambudla responded with a tirade of her own posts, many of which contained explicit language. In one of them, she claimed Shivambu was the “worst thing that happened to MK”.

This led to MK party leader Jacob Zuma, who is also her father, threatening to terminate her membership if she did not apologise.

Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla apologises

On Tuesday, Zuma-Sambudla apologised, but not directly to Shivambu.

“As a committed and disciplined member of the uMkhonto weSizwe party, I hereby extend this unconditional public apology to President Zuma and [the] uMkhonto weSizwe party leadership for the profanity used in my recent posts on X,” she said.

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While acknowledging she had strong views on Shivambu and other internal party matters, she admitted she should have addressed her concerns within the party.

“I acknowledge that expressing these grievances publicly was unfortunate and may have undermined the unity, discipline, and respect that defines the MK party,” she said.

The apology comes despite Zuma-Sambudla’s last post stating she expected to be expelled from the party. “It is well with my soul,” she added.

Factions within MK party

Speaking to The Citizen on Tuesday, political analyst Professor Ntsikelelo Breakfast said the MK party has two factions, one led by Zuma’s daughter and the other by Shivambu.

“There are two factions in the MK, one behind Duduzile because she is the daughter of the president and the one behind Floyd. I cannot confirm who the powerful one is,” Breakfast said.

He also said it is clear that Zuma-Sambudla feels aggrieved that Shivambu was parachuted into the secretary-general role after the elections.

“She is bitter because maybe she feels overlooked. This looks like a deep-rooted conflict. The fact that her father is a founder of the party makes her feel that she is untouchable,” he said.

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