Bongani Baloyi joins Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe party

Former Democratic Alliance Midvaal mayor Bongani Baloyi has joined the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party and will de-register his own Xiluva party which he formed in 2023.

Baloyi made the announcement at the Gauteng Young Women’s Christian Association hall in Dube, Soweto on Thursday, saying the entire executive of Xiluva would join Jacob Zuma’s MK party. He encouraged all those who voted for him in the 29 May general elections to follow suit.

“The issues of Xiluva will be deregistered and if anyone calls themselves Xiluva after deregistration, they will be misrepresenting themselves because such an organisation will not exist,” he said.

“There’s legal protection around the branding and copyright, so it will be very difficult to take the brand and do whatever they want.”

Baloyi joins a long list of leaders who left their own parties to join the MK party, including Colleen Makhubele and Floyd Shivambu.

He said he started Xiluva to attempt to do what the MK party did successfully.

“What our documents are saying and the documents of uMkhonto weSizwe are saying, it is the same thing. The people have expressed themselves. Why must we continue?” Baloyi said.

“We are coming here to say we are humbling ourselves as the leadership, we are closing our organisation. For us we have found a home. Umkhonto resonates with us and Umkhonto and Xiluva are the same thing.”

He said whether people took him seriously or not, he would not “burden himself” with what they said about him. Baloyi added that he would decline any offer by the MK party to deploy him in parliament or the provincial legislature as he wanted to work on the ground.

“There’s no expectation; if there was an offer to be made, it would be respectfully declined,” he said.