No dim view of ANC, says lawyer Terry Motau on wearing sunglasses in court as IEC defends MK party registration

Courts are known for strict rules relating to what legal practitioners wear. But with missing spectacles and bright lights in the courtroom, advocate Terry Motau resorted to wearing sunglasses while delivering arguments in the Electoral Court during the ANC's legal challenge against the MK party. 

Motau, who appeared on behalf of the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) in Bloemfontein on Tuesday, told the court he wore sunglasses because he could not find his spectacles. 

“Justices and professors, may I commence by indicating that I am wearing sunglasses is not an indication that I take a dim view of the applicant's [ANC] case but it is rather the continuation of the difficulties which I have been faced with on this trip. The struggle of finding court attire has been conquered but I am still trying to locate my glasses and hopefully also come right with that,” Motau said. 

Motau defended the IEC's decision to register the MK party as a political party. The ANC applied to the court to rule the MK party's registration invalid, arguing its name was that of the ANC's disbanded military wing. 

Motau said the governing party should have accepted the IEC's decision of upholding the registration when the ANC lodged an appeal to the commission last year. The commission rejected the appeal, confident the decision of registering MK as a party was correct. 

“The commission wants to address the binding and final nature of the commission's decision to reject the ANC's appeal and to uphold the deputy chief electoral officer's decision to register MK as a political party. It is not for the ANC to ignore the decision of the process it followed.

''As a matter of law, the deputy chief electoral commissioner's decision was appealed and there is a decision, which is why MK as a party enjoy the state of being registered. We submit that should be the end of the matter,” Motau said. 

Motau is no stranger to the spotlight. In 2018, he was appointed as one of the lead investigators in the VBS Mutual Bank looting scandal.

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