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Duduzane Zuma says MK party president Jacob Zuma is healthy

Published

Duduzane Zuma, first deputy president of the uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party, told supporters at a rally in uMlazi that his father is in good health. Jacob Zuma was in hospital a few weeks earlier.

Duduzane Zuma spoke at a mini rally in K section uMlazi, south of Durban, ahead of the local government elections. He said Jacob Zuma is healthy and in charge of the party. He said his father showed a few days earlier that he is in charge.

Duduzane Zuma also said the party is dealing with manipulation of candidate lists and with sabotage. He said investigations will get to the bottom of it. He said some of those investigations may not end by 4 November.

The party removed its Secretary-General, Sbonelo Nomvalo. The party linked his removal to concerns about the process to select councillors.

Key facts

Who
Duduzane Zuma (1st Deputy President of the uMkhonto Wesizwe party); Jacob Zuma (President of the uMkhonto Wesizwe party); Sbonelo Nomvalo (former Secretary-General of the uMkhonto Wesizwe party (axed))
What
At a mini rally in K section uMlazi, south of Durban, ahead of the local government elections, Duduzane Zuma said his father, MK party president Jacob Zuma, is in good health. The article also reports the party's Secretary-General Sbonelo Nomvalo was axed, which the party linked to concerns about the councillor selection process.
When
25 October 2026
Where
K section uMlazi, Durban
Status
Reported

Elections Hot

What you need to know

Voting in the 2026 Local Government Elections is under way at 23,696 stations, and the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) reported a smooth start on 4 November. Stations opened at 7am and close at 9pm, and by 10am preliminary figures showed 3,523,691 voters had cast ballots.

There were problems: unused ballot papers were stolen from Mnyameni Secondary School near Durban, police opened a case, and the IEC relieved the station staff of duty. Some voters in Tshwane said they were turned away for wearing party shirts, but the IEC denied this and said only mayoral candidates' entourages were barred.

ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe told members not to query the results or discredit the IEC, while the IEC said false online claims show routine procedures as fraud.

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US mid-terms Heating up

What you need to know

Democrats won back both the US House and Senate in the midterm elections held on 3 November, according to media projections. Exit polls showed voters were angry about high prices and the direction of the country, and rebuked President Donald Trump.

Before the vote, US forces struck targets on Qeshm Island in Iran, while Republicans struggled to defend the war against Iran on the campaign trail. Iranian officials said US voters rejected the war, and Tehran stayed on high alert for possible new US strikes.

Markets reacted, with the dollar hitting a one-month low and the rand firming to around R16.55, as analysts pointed to fears of gridlock in Washington.

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AI Cooling

What you need to know

Nvidia has told its cloud computing clients to sell at least 51% of their services to non-Chinese companies, according to five people with knowledge of the matter. Anthropic said it has committed to spend close to $900bn on AI infrastructure, and that its computing costs are rising faster than its revenues.

Elsewhere, reports from unnamed sources say OpenAI's latest funding round is falling short of expectations, and a judge let the NAACP pollution case against xAI proceed. In South Africa, the VAST AI investment scheme went offline on 30 October after withdrawals marked approved did not arrive, according to a news investigation.

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