Supporters sing and chant at Mehlareng Stadium in Tembisa during a recruitment drive for the newly launched Umkhonto WeSizwe party on 21 January, 2024. Picture: EMMANUEL CROSET/ AFP
Following a bruising defeat in the Electoral Court on Tuesday, the African National Congress (ANC) is set to face off in another battle with the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party in the Durban High Court.
This time it is over the uMkhonto weSizwe name and logo.
In its court papers, the ANC said it has used the uMkhonto weSizwe trademark for decades.
“The MK logo and name is the heritage and intellectual property of the ANC, we will not allow counter-revolutionaries to hijack our movement for their personal gain,” the ANC said after losing the deregistration case against the MK party.
The ANC in December last year asked Jabulani Sibongiseni Khumalo, the founder of the new MK party to stop using the logo and trademark.
The ANC said the use of the logo and trademark will lead to some South Africans believing there is a connection between the ruling party and the MK party.
However, Khumalo denied this, arguing the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case, according to News24.
“It is common cause that the ANC has no registered rights in the disputed trademark, which would entitle it to ring infringement proceedings.
“Needless to say, if uMkhonto weSizwe was not disbanded in 1993, it would bring an application itself and would not rely on some indirect relationship with the ANC. The disbandment cannot be wished away,” Khumalo said.
Khumalo said the logo of the MK party is very different from the alleged registered trademark.
“For example, the warrior depicted therein is holding his spear above the waist and not above the neck. This signifies a less belligerent posture, given the political victory of 1994. The logo is surrounded by greed [green] shading in a circle [and] this signifies the dominant colour of the party.”
MK was formed as the militant wing of the ANC during the apartheid era. However, the governing party disbanded MK in 1993 and formed the MK Military Veterans’ Association, which it also disbanded in 2021.
On Tuesday, the ANC was left with egg on its face following its failed court bid to get the MK party deregistered before the 29 May national and provincial elections.
Delivering a unanimous judgment on Tuesday, Judge Lebogang Modiba of the Electoral Court, sitting in the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg, ruled the ANC’s complaints lacked any merit, was not urgent and that the court did not have any jurisdiction to hear the case.
“The ANC failed to explain why the decision was taken for its next court action. The ANC should have instituted these court actions within three days of the MK party’s registrations.
“The application is dismissed, with no order as to costs,” Modiba said.
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