Fact-Check — Is Iqbal Survé the funder behind Jacob Zuma’s new political party?

Mid-December, former president Jacob Zuma announced that he was throwing his weight behind a new political party called Umkhonto We Sizwe. It didn’t take long for rumours to start circulating about who else might be involved.

Fact-Check — Is Iqbal Survé the funder behind Jacob Zuma’s new political party?

At this stage, we know very little about a new political party backed by Jacob Zuma called Umkhonto We Sizwe, which is obviously also the name of the ANC’s military wing during apartheid — so the name is a direct provocation to the ANC, and the party has said that it will be exploring legal action.

Zuma has said that the party was established after calls to him from religious leaders, traditional leaders and former MK fighters.

A document from the IEC shows that the party was registered on 7 September 2023 by a man called Jabulani Khumalo.

At the time, Khumalo described himself as a dissatisfied ANC member and former Umkhonto We Sizwe soldier. Since then, however, multiple figures within both the ANC and MK have denied that Khumalo was ever an MK fighter — and that’s probably not an easy dispute to settle given how bad record keeping was from the time.

In the interim, it has been suggested online that one of the funders of this party is the owner of Independent Media, Iqbal Survé. According to one widely viewed tweet, Survé has pledged “hundreds of millions” to this party.

In a responding post, Survé has denied the claim, but the truth behind this remains uncertain.

DM