WATCH: ANC not offended by members who leave for MK party – Mbalula

African National Congress (ANC) secretary general Fikile Mbalula said the party is not offended by members who leave the organisation for former President Jacob Zuma’s MK party.

Mbalula was addressing scores of ANC supporters near the Durban High Court on Wednesday following the adjournment of the governing party’s trademarks case against the MK party.

Judgment has been reserved in the matter at the Durban High Court.

Watch Fikile Mbalula addressing supporters

Romanticising corruption

The ANC wants to stop the MK Party from using the name and logo linked to the ANC’s armed wing uMkhonto we Sizwe.

Mbalula said the days of sugar-coating and romanticising corruption are over.

“Comrades, the time of when you are arrested with stealing and go and toyi toyi wearing ANC t-shirts is over. The ANC did not send people to go and steal, you supposed to stand up for yourself. We remain in the party. When the ANC sent me to become a minister, it didn’t say I must put my hands in the pot.”

ALSO READ: WATCH: Will ANC be happy if MK party is called ‘uMkhonto ka Zuma’? – Mpofu

Abuse of court

During court proceedings, MK Party counsel advocate Dali Mpofu and Muzi Sikhakhane argued the governing party was not the owner of the intellectual property of the uMkhonto we Sizwe, so they had no basis to make an application in the high court.

“They wait for six months and they do nothing and they expect the uMkhonto we Sizwe now to rush a month before the election when they’ve already campaigned due to their laxity. Okay, if we call it uMkhonto full stop. Are they going to be happy or uMkhonto ka Zuma, maybe that’s what they want it to be called, or something.”

Mpofu said the ANC’s case is an “abuse of the court process” and should be slapped with a punitive costs order.

“This has to stop somewhere, we cannot have our courts being abused in the manner week in, week out to achieve political ends.”

Confused voters

Earlier, ANC counsel advocate Gavin Marriot argued that the logos of the governing party and the MK party were so similar that they will confuse voters when they get their ballot paper on election day.

Marriot said the ANC has “done the heavy lifting” by organising and taking control and responsibility of its military wing uMkhonto we Sizwe and through its efforts and the efforts of people has generated extensive goodwill in the logo. This he argued was the basis on which the party’s trademark case was anchored.

“What MK seeks to do is ride on the coat-tails of the ANC’s heritage and to ride all the way into parliament. They don’t have their own history or legacy and so they’re riding on the coat-tails of the ANC’s history and legacy in order to achieve the same advantage which the ANC enjoys as a result of its history.”

ANC has no case

Meanwhile, Zuma told MK supporters the ANC had no case against his party.

“The truth of the matter is, there’s no case here. They [the ANC] think they can win everything. We are uMkhonto we Sizwe.”

The proceedings followed Tuesday’s ruling by the Electoral Court, which dismissed the ANC’s bid to have the MK party deregistered as a political party.

ALSO READ: WATCH: MK party ‘riding on the coat-tails’ of the ANC’s history and legacy’