A man wearing a uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party shirt attends the Shekinah Healing Ministries Prophetic Pillowcase service where former South African president Jacob Zuma was present, in Phillipi, near Cape Town, on 10 March 2024 Image: Gianluigi Guercia/AFP
MK Party will be on the election ballot come 29 May
The ruling ANC wanted the Jacob Zuma’s MK Party deregistered as a political party, ahead of the national elections in May.
A man wearing a uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party shirt attends the Shekinah Healing Ministries Prophetic Pillowcase service where former South African president Jacob Zuma was present, in Phillipi, near Cape Town, on 10 March 2024 Image: Gianluigi Guercia/AFP
The Electoral Court has given the green light for the Jacob Zuma-backed uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party to contest the general elections comes 29 May 2024, with the court striking down the ANC’s attempt to get the party deregistered.
In handing down the judgment, the court said the deregistration of the MK Party now would not give the party enough time to register again.
“If the ANC’s application is granted it will be too late for the MK to register as a party,” the court said.
“The ANC should have objected to MK Party’s registration within the first 14 days of the publication of the notice of MK registration,” the court added.
There was no order was made regarding costs.
The ruling party took the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to the court in Bloemfontein last Tuesday, 19 March, over the electoral body’s registration and inclusion of the MK Party on the 29 May 2024 ballot.
It was registered as a political party in August 2023 after initially getting rebuffed by the IEC over allegedly dodgy signatures. Then on 16 December 2023 in Orlando, Soweto, the party announced its intention to campaign and compete in the 29 May elections, with the help Zuma and his daughter Duduzile, among others.
MK Party gets a spring in its step
Outside the court, a jubilant Jabulani Khumalo – the party’s national coordinator – slammed the ANC for using the courts to try and retain power.
He was speaking to Newzroom Afrika ahead of court proceedings on Wednesday 27 March at the Pietermaritzburg High Court in KwaZulu-Natal, this time over the MK’s use of the name and logo, which the ruling party claims to own.
