ANC threatens to go to high court if decision on MK party registration doesn’t go its way

The African National Congress (ANC) has pleaded with the court not to turn away its application against the registration of the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party.

The Electoral Court, sitting in Bloemfontein, on Tuesday heard the ANC’s application which seeks to have the MK party’s registration as a political party with the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) reviewed and declared unlawful.

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, the ruling party’s first deputy secretary-general Nomvula Paula Mokonyane as well as former president Jacob Zuma attended the court proceedings.

At the same time, supporters of both the ANC and of the MK party gathered outside court.

#ANCvsMK : The ANC is taking the IEC to the Electoral Court in a bid to
Invalidate the registration of the MK party, contending that it was unlawful for the MK party to be registered on a “supplemented” application. #SABCNews pic.twitter.com/PWdBFJaUtV

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Electoral Court jurisdiction

The ANC’s legal team, consisting of advocates Sesi Baloyi and Tshidiso Ramogale, argued that the Electoral Court had jurisdiction to hear the governing party’s application.

Ramogale pointed out that there was case law that negated the IEC’s argument.

“The simple point we make is that the argument that has been advanced by the commission about why this court doesn’t have jurisdiction was squarely rejected in the very same judgment they rely on,” the advocate told the court.

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He dismissed the IEC’s submission to the court that the decisions of the commission’s leadership cannot be legally challenged.

“This position, we say, is plainly untenable in terms of the law,” Ramogale argued.

“The very notion of the arguments made by the commission in its papers that somehow despite the deputy CEO [chief electoral officer] or CEO’s decisions being an exercise of public power or performance of a public function, there is no court that can second guess or look into that questions for reasons that we simply say are untenable,” the applicant’s lawyer said.

Watch the court case below:

‘Protect ANC’s right to franchise’

Ramogale requested the Electoral Court not to dismiss the ANC’s application.

The advocate emphasised the importance of ensuring certainty regarding whether MK would be lawfully included on the ballot and stressed the urgency of this matter, noting that the elections were imminent.

“There are questions regarding the legality of a party on that particular ballot and whether that party should in fact be there in the first place.

READ MORE: MK party warns of ‘anarchy and civil war’ if not allowed to contest elections

“We say that’s not issue the court should turn away from [because] it is the very thing that this court was established to decide, to protect free and fair elections, to protect the right to franchise, but importantly to uphold the rule of law.

“So if we are booted out and we are told this court doesn’t have jurisdiction or the delay is in fact excessive, well that means for us we will have to go to the high court despite the fact that we say on 196 of the Constitution the high court doesn’t have jurisdiction,” Ramogale further argued.

MK party’s registration

Meanwhile, Baloyi dealt with the merits of the application, informing the court that the ANC was “not fighting” with the IEC, but with the commission’s deputy CEO Mawethu Mosery, who approved the MK party’s registration in September 2023.

“We are criticising the deputy chief electoral officer and the criticism is that he did not exercise his powers lawfully,” she said.

The ANC, in its court papers, argued that the MK submitted a supplementary registration application to the IEC rather than a new application, thus, rendering the process irregular.

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The commission initially rejected the MK’s first application to register a political party lodged in June due to issues relating to signatures.

Baloyi argued the 4 August decision taken by Mosery to reconsider MK’s rejected application was not permissible.

She said the application was already “defunct”.

“On 7 September, the deputy CEO makes a new decision to register [the MK party] and it is made on the basis of supplemented application,” the advocate told the court.

“The decision to reject the application was a final decision by its nature.”

According to the IEC, the ANC did not approach the Electoral Court within the prescribed time to challenge the MK’s registration after their appeal had failed.

The ANC had approached the IEC with an appeal, but it was dismissed on 24 November. 

It is a matter of historical record that MK was a military wing jointly formed by the ANC and the SACP, and it operated under the political direction of the ANC National Executive Committee(NEC). It is an integral part of the history and heritage of the ANC. pic.twitter.com/crhrV5b7od

— ANC SECRETARY GENERAL | Fikile Mbalula (@MbalulaFikile) March 19, 2024