Former ANC politician Tony Yengeni has defected to the official opposition MK party, taking up the newly created post of second deputy president.
The former anti-apartheid activist will serve alongside impeached judge John Hlophe, who leads the party in parliament.
The position of second deputy president is not explicitly provided for in the MK constitution. The decision to create the position “to oversee internal and broader political and organisational issues” was necessary to allow Hlophe to continue with parliamentary work, the party said in a statement.
Yengeni rose from the ANC’s ranks to become the party’s chief whip from November 1998 to October 2001. He was a member of the national executive committee between 1994 and 2022.
In parliament, before his appointment as chief whip, Yengeni chaired the joint standing committee on defence from 1994 to 1998. His activities in the committee gave rise to a criminal charge during investigations into alleged corruption in the arms procurement deal.
In 2003, he was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to four years in prison for getting an unlawful discount on a Mercedes-Benz he purchased. Yengeni, who served just four months of the sentence, said the charges were “politically motivated”.
In the ANC, Yengeni aligned himself with the party’s radical economic transformation faction that was close to Zuma and was often at odds with President Cyril Ramaphosa’s leadership.
Earlier in 2025, the ANC charged Yengeni with ill-discipline after he publicly criticised Ramaphosa’s handling of the controversy regarding a burglary at his Phala Phala game farm in 2020.
Yengeni recently also represented Zuma in a failed bid to have his ANC membership reinstated. Zuma was expelled in 2024 shortly after MK was established.
“He [Hlophe] is becoming more consumed by international work and therefore you need a second deputy president to focus on the internal matters and … and the workings of the organisation … the first deputy president focuses largely [on being the leader of MK] in parliament,” party chairperson Nkosinathi Nhleko said on Thursday.
“A very serious and well-known comrade, a lawyer by profession — not just a lawyer, but one who speaks for the people. He is a serious lawyer who can handle all matters, regardless of where they come from,” Zuma said of Yengeni.
“You all know him because he’s a man who speaks. We’re giving him a job as a deputy president and as a leader in parliament.”
Regarding Hlophe, Zuma said: “We want him now to concentrate mainly on parliament to deal with parliamentary issues, laws, and legal matters.”
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