Nomvalo accuses ‘political cartel’ involving Zandile Gumede, Mxolisi Phakathi and Lindelani Mbambo of plotting his removal

Former uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party secretary-general Sibonelo Nomvalo has accused former eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede, the party’s eThekwini mayoral candidate, Apostle Mxolisi Phakathi and Lindelani Mbambo of undermining him.

In a letter dated 26 October and addressed to party president Jacob Zuma, Nomvalo accused Mbambo, who is the party’s head of presidency, of deliberately sabotaging his request to meet with Zuma following his removal from the party.

In the letter, which the Mail & Guardian has seen, Nomvalo said Mbambo’s actions were motivated by his alleged involvement in a political cartel that had been plotting his removal from the secretary-general position following the expulsion of Duduzile Zuma and Nhlamulo Ndhlela from the party.

“To the best of my knowledge, Cde. Lindelani Mbambo is an associate of a newly formed factional caucus which has spearheaded the removal of some of our comrades from their previous positions with a view to gaining total control of organisational processes.

“Since my arrival as the secretary-general, I have been fighting against propaganda spread by some MKP leaders alleging that I am attempting to destroy many of our comrades. They use fake intelligence reports to settle political scores.”

Last week, Zuma dismissed Nomvalo from his position amid concerns about the selection of councillor candidates, internal factionalism and delays in campaign materials, among other issues.

Nomvalo has also been at loggerheads with Zuma’s daughter, Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, and Nhlamulo Ndlela after he expelled them from the party for alleged misconduct.

In his letter, Nomvalo said all the allegations contained in the letter that led to his dismissal were untrue, malicious, fallacious and denigrating. He believes the allegations were fabricated to agitate Zuma into making drastic decisions and turn MK Party members against him, ensuring that he left the organisation under a cloud of hatred.

Nomvalo said he would welcome the opportunity to be presented with specific examples demonstrating that he had caused internal factionalism.

“President, in my view, the people who introduce external elements of factionalism into the party are the following: Cde. Zandile Gumede, Apostle Mxolisi Phakathi and Cde. Lindelani Mbambo. I will provide further evidence to illustrate this during our meeting.

“I am in possession of evidence in support of this. I also have witnesses. Their strong desire currently is to control deployments in local municipalities. Hence, they approached you with fake reports a day after I announced the local election deployment committees, which was in line with a resolution of the National Officials’ meeting convened at the EBandla Hotel and Conference Centre in Ballito.”

Nomvalo described the allegations concerning the councillor selection process as malicious, baseless and fallacious.

He said that, far from undermining the organisation, he had protected it against the manipulation of processes. He claimed that, after learning that some “comrades” were allegedly accepting bribes in exchange for proportional representation (PR) councillor positions ahead of the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC) cut-off date, he instructed regions to submit only one PR candidate name for each municipality.

Nomvalo said the instruction was also intended to give regions, provinces and the national leadership an opportunity to organise themselves properly and compile PR lists in a conducive environment.

“Secondly, wards selected their own ward candidates. I never attended even a single ward meeting, nor was I involved in capturing names on the IEC system.

“All I was doing by instructing structures to establish deployment committees was to ensure that, by the time the IEC opened the system for the submission of the final PR lists, the party was ready at all levels and all relevant structures had been involved.”

“In conclusion, this is just the tip of the iceberg, Mr President. I have more to say if we eventually meet.”

Nomvalo added that he wanted to emphasise his concern about the direction the party was taking. He alleged that attempts to undermine Zuma’s intellectual capacity by submitting false reports to him, as well as using people who had been coached to lie about other party members, were once again widespread.

“It is highly championed by Apostle Mxolisi Phakathi. I can count many instances where he brought comrades with whom he rehearsed lies to be presented to you to influence your position when making decisions.”