With 9 MPs down, Makhubele insists initial passing of 'illegal' budget would've failed
MK Party's new chief whip Colleen Makhubele says the party’s parliamentary caucus has not yet been informed as to who will fill the nine vacant seats, and whether Floyd Shivambu will be included.
The MK Party, led by its new chief whip Colleen Makhubele held a briefing in Parliament ahead of 11 June 2025 plenary sitting to debate the Fiscal Framework and Revenue Proposals. Picture: Lindsay Dentlinger / Eyewitness News
CAPE TOWN - The uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party’s parliamentary caucus says party structures are still deciding who will fill the nine seats it currently has vacant in the National Assembly (NA).
Following an announcement by the party last week that its former secretary general, Floyd Shivambu, will be joining the opposition benches once again, the party’s new whip, Colleen Makhubele, on Wednesday said dozens of people are clamouring to enter Parliament on the MK Party ticket.
With a year having passed since the national elections, political parties once again have the opportunity to amend or replenish their party lists.
But it seems unlikely the MK Party will make the deadline for the first review period, which closes on Thursday.
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Squabbles over whose names were submitted to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) last year, and the subsequent firing of members designated to the NA, have meant that for the better part of the past year, the MK Party has not been operating with its full political muscle.
Makhubele has admitted that not filling all of its 58 seats has been problematic when it comes to voting on key matters.
“If we had 58 members, rest assured that the first time that this illegal budget was passed, it would not have passed because they would not have had the numbers.”
Makhubele says the party’s parliamentary caucus has not yet been informed as to who will fill the nine vacant seats, and whether Shivambu will be included.
“The former SG, we are awaiting for the final list, of course, all of us heard the announcement that was made by the president last week in the press briefing. Beyond that, it will be submitted formally to the parliamentary leader, Dr Hlophe.”
If it misses the current seven-day list review deadline, the party will only be able to amend or replenish its lists once, until June next year.