MK Party fires 15 MPs, terminates membership

Barely two months after being sworn in as members of the National Assembly representing the MK Party, 15 MPs have been fired and their party membership terminated. 

MK Party chief whip Sihle Ngubane wrote to speaker Thoko Didiza informing her of changes in the party's caucus.

According to the constitution, a person loses membership of the Assembly if they cease to be a member of the party that nominated them.

Didiza informed affected MPs that “loss of membership is therefore by operation of the law and parliament has to give effect to the official communication from the party”.

The office of the MK Party’s secretary-general has provided Didiza with a list of eight candidates to fill the vacancies. 

“We hereby request the supplementation of the MK Party depleted national list of candidates in terms of the Electoral Act for the purposes of filling vacancies in the assembly,” Ngubane wrote to Didiza.

The news comes days after the party announced the second axing of its on and off secretary-general Arthur Zwane over claims of “mismanagement and internal conflicts”.

It is unclear why the eight MPs' party membership was revoked.

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