{"id":302713,"date":"2026-06-26T04:02:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T04:02:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/302713\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T04:02:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T04:02:36","slug":"zuma-sambudla-ndhlela-challenge-mk-party-expulsions-in-urgent-court-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/302713\/","title":{"rendered":"Zuma-Sambudla, Ndhlela challenge MK Party expulsions in urgent court bid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, daughter of MK Party leader Jacob Zuma, and former party spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela have filed an urgent application in the Johannesburg High Court challenging their expulsion from the MK Party.<\/p>\n<p>The pair lodged court papers on Thursday, seeking to have their expulsions reviewed and set aside.<\/p>\n<p>The application follows a recent announcement by MK Party secretary-general Sibonelo Nomvalo that the two had been <a href=\"https:\/\/iol.co.za\/news\/2026-06-21-duduzile-zuma-sambudla-and-nhlamulo-ndhlela-to-challenge-mk-party-expulsions-in-court\/.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">expelled<\/a> with immediate effect for allegedly acting in ways that conflicted with the party\u2019s constitution, values and organisational interests.<\/p>\n<p>The party also accused them of unauthorised activities linked to the death of MP Muzi Ntshingila.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ndhlela was additionally removed as party spokesperson for allegedly holding an unauthorised media briefing.<\/p>\n<p>In their court papers, seen by IOL News, the applicants argue that they were expelled without due process.<\/p>\n<p>They said they were not given notice of charges or a disciplinary hearing, and only learned of the decision through a media briefing on June 18.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe applicants were not served with any formal charges\u2026 and were not given any opportunity whatsoever to be heard,\u201d the papers state.<\/p>\n<p>Ndhlela said the MK Party constitution sets out a mandatory disciplinary process that was not followed, rendering the expulsions unlawful.<\/p>\n<p>He added that the matter is urgent as he remains a sitting Member of the National Assembly and could lose his seat if the expulsion stands.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe loss of a parliamentary seat cannot adequately be compensated in damages,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He argued that the removal process could be triggered at any time if the party informs Parliament, making court intervention necessary to prevent irreversible harm.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Zuma-Sambudla also denied wrongdoing and said she was never formally notified of disciplinary charges linked to her expulsion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo disciplinary hearing was convened,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>She added that she first learned of her removal through media reports.<\/p>\n<p>She disputed allegations relating to Ntshingila, saying she acted at his personal request during his illness and rejected claims of misconduct.<\/p>\n<p>She further alleged that the expulsions were politically motivated and carried out to remove internal opponents within the party\u2019s structures.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/iol.co.za\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection\" class=\"__cf_email__\" data-cfemail=\"3a495357555414575b505b5e5358555e4f7a53555614595514405b\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">[email\u00a0protected]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>IOL Politics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, daughter of MK Party leader Jacob Zuma, and former party spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela have filed an&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[52],"tags":[12733,58092,1694,10568,4456,7695,10241,146635,12985,150917,4735,136913,131],"class_list":["post-302713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-south-africa","tag-application","tag-duduzile-zuma-sambudla","tag-iol-news","tag-iol-politics","tag-jacob-zuma","tag-johannesburg-high-court","tag-mk-party","tag-muzi-ntshingila","tag-national-assembly","tag-ndhlela","tag-parliament","tag-sibonelo-nomvalo","tag-south-africa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/116814423365660168","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}