The hurling of abuse and objects at Jabulani Khumalo outside the Electoral Court in Johannesburg, where the expelled MK Party founder is fighting to be reinstated as its leader, sets a dangerous precedent.
Visibly angry supporters dressed in MK Party regalia confronted Khumalo in the CBD outside the high court building, forcing his convoy to hastily depart for safety and in so doing at least one vehicle was damaged.
Khumalo approached the court claiming former president Jacob Zuma and his daughter Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla executed a plot to oust him from the party he started. It allegedly involved faking his signature on a bogus resignation letter sent to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).
Zuma and his daughter denied the allegations, and their legal team told the court Khumalo should be charged with perjury for giving false statements under oath and decried the forgery allegations as untrue and defamatory.
At first blush, the fact that Khumalo and Zuma took the dispute to court is a positive sign. It demonstrates respect for the rule of law and institutions established to resolve such matters.
However, the violent behaviour of MK supporters, pledging their allegiance to Zuma while effectively telling Khumalo to go to hell, is particularly disturbing.
The incident played out on the street in broad daylight amid moving traffic and pedestrians. Brief video clips of the confrontation did not show any obvious intervention by police — who are monitoring KwaZulu-Natal for potential unrest related to the election outcome — as vehicles were pelted.
The volatile situation could have escalated. Innocent people could have been hurt.
Zuma’s legal team argued in court that he is the rightful leader of the party. Yet, by extension, the aggression shown on the street outside court was then displayed by his supporters, administering their own type of “justice” to those who dare take on Zuma.
The impression created is there would be trouble when uBaba does not get his way. Zuma emerged from court to allege that Khumalo was paid “a lot” of money (by people he won’t name), to challenge the party’s leadership in court.
“In the struggle, there were people that were bought and sold out. This is something we are used to,” he said.
The responsible thing from uBaba would have been for him to immediately reprimand his supporters, before peddling rumours about Khumalo being paid. Responsible leadership, in such a flammable situation, required of Zuma to admonish them, reminding them that this was not an acceptable way of managing disagreements. The principle extends beyond Khumalo. When the media, for example, reports critically on Zuma’s new party, should we now expect stones and rocks to be pelted against members of the fourth estate?
Mixed messages from a political leader can create confusion on the ground. Zuma, on the one hand, openly questions the credibility of the election process and accuses the IEC of “provoking us”, yet on the other tells party members “we don’t want people to die”.
Fighting talk with footnotes calling for cool heads.
Of course, similar tensions flared between supporters of the ANC and EFF recently at Juju Valley in Seshego, Limpopo.
Since some perpetrators of Monday’s chaos were captured on video, one would hope that the MK Party takes swift action against any of them involved in stoning vehicles and condemns their actions in the strongest possible terms. Not doing so would, by omission, come across as condoning their bad behaviour.
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