‘This is just the beginning’: ANC plans more legal action against Zuma’s MK Party

The ANC intends to drag former president Jacob Zuma into further legal action in its challenge against the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party.

The Electoral Court in Bloemfontein on Tuesday heard the first arguments in the ANC’s legal challenge to have MK Party, named after its disbanded military wing, deregistered.

Speaking after the court hearing, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula described the hearing as “the beginning” of the governing party’s fight against its former president.

“If Zuma wants to form a party, it is fine — he can call it Msholozi, Zuma, he can call it whatever he wants to call it, but we will never leave him to run away with MK. Umkhonto we Sizwe belongs to the ANC, it belongs to the people of South Africa. He took our asset and decided to run with it.

“We are challenging him in two levels. Here at the Electoral Court, we are challenging him in terms of deregistration of this party. Next week, we are challenging the ownership of uMkhonto. This is just the beginning,” Mbalula said.

Mbalula was not worried should the party lose in court. 

“Should anything work against us, it will not be the end of the day [world]. Should we register victory, it is equally good for the ANC. We respect the rule of law.”

He said the move by Zuma endorsing a new party was a shock for the ANC.

“Jacob Zuma has done something that we wouldn’t have expected from him, to form a political party against the ANC. As the ANC, we are standing here saying this [MK] is our property,” he said.

The legal challenge by the ANC has been a thorny issue for the MK Party, just a few months before 2024 national elections.

Last week MK party interim youth leader Bonginkosi Khanyile said the party would do everything in its power to stop the elections if MK Party or Zuma’s face would not feature on the ballot papers.

Khanyile, facing charges of incitement of violence for the July 2021 unrest, said the party was willing to meet “toe-to-toe” with security forces in their fight for “democracy”.

“If they remove MK [Party] and remove president Zuma as the face of the campaign, there won’t be elections in South Africa. Let me repeat, so that when we are arrested, they can use this video as evidence in court. We mean what we say. What do we do with this military which they are going to unleash? The soldiers were defeated by the July unrest. Do you think you can stop MK?” Khanyile asked.

Another MK Party senior leader in KZN, Visvin Reddy, made similar remarks in a viral video.

“We are sending a loud and clear message that if these courts, which are sometimes captured, try to stop the MK [Party] there will be anarchy in this country,” he said.

There will be riots that have never been seen in this country. There will be no election. No South African will go to the polls if MK is not on the ballot.”

TimesLIVE