Electoral Court dismisses expelled MK party founder Jabulani Khumalo’s bid for leadership

The Electoral Court has found that MK founder Jabulani Khumalo has no grounds to claim that he is the leader of the organisation and that former president Jacob Zuma’s appointment was unlawful.

“The court determined the disputed facts on the respondents’ version in accordance with the Plascon-Evans rule. It found that the respondents’ version is well substantiated and not far-fetched. Mr Khumalo wrote the alleged fraudulent letter advising the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) to change its records to reflect Mr Zuma as the leader of MK party.

“The commission complied with regulation 9 when it acted on this request because it acted on a written notice of the change by the then MK party leader, Mr Khumalo. Regulation 9 does not require that the party leader sends the notice. Therefore, the application falls to be dismissed,” according to a summary of judgment released by the Electoral Court.

This comes after Khumalo launched an urgent application to declare his removal as party leader and Zuma’s ascension to the helm as invalid and unlawful.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Expulsions from MK party point to deep instability and mistrust

Khumalo’s legal council argued that Zuma’s daughter and MK party National Executive Committee member, Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla forged his signature and sent a fraudulent letter to the IEC informing it that he had resigned. The letter then sets out that Zuma would then replace Khumalo as the party leader on the commission’s records.

Zuma on the other hand denied these allegations that Khumalo was indeed responsible for the letter.

The judgment sets out why the courts have no reason to believe the letter sent by Khumalo was fraudulent.

“…Mr Khumalo sent a letter to it requesting it to place Mr Zuma’s photo on the ballot paper as the face of the MK party and presidential candidate. The commission informed him that in terms of its policy, only a party leader may appear on the ballot paper. While Mr Khumalo had expressed reluctance to change MKP particulars to reflect Mr Zuma as its leader, when the commission insisted that that is the only way he could be placed on the ballot paper, he undertook to resolve the issue and revert.

“Subsequently, Ms Zuma-Sambudla who is the MKP official liaison person with the Commission sent the alleged fraudulent letter. It had no reason to suspect that the letter was fraudulent and acted reasonably by accepting the letter under these circumstances,” it reads.

Read more in Daily Maverick: MK founder asks IEC to ‘urgently remove’ Jacob Zuma from the party’s list of candidates

Khumalo also lost his application on the basis of urgency.

“On urgency, the court found that Mr Khumalo failed to bring the application within the three days required in terms of s 20(1)(b) of the Commission Act, read with Rule 6 of the Electoral Court Rules. The delay is unreasonable because it is not fully explained. A proper case for the delay to be condoned or overlooked in the interests of justice is not made,” it reads.

This is a second blow for the embattled politician, who has also been barred from attending the first sitting of Parliament on Friday. This was after he was removed from the parliamentary list by the party.

The disgruntled MK party made a decision to boycott the sitting due to unhappiness about the election but Khumalo had confirmed his attendance of Friday’s ceremony. Parliament, however, cancelled all flights and accommodation arrangements for all members of the MK Party.

MK Party approach to Con Court

In a bid to thwart proceedings on Friday, the MK Party has also launched a bid to urgently interdict the National Assembly from holding its first sitting of the seventh parliament by approaching the Constitutional Court.

In Part A of its application, the party has asked the Constitutional Court to interdict the first sitting of the National Assembly on Friday, 14 June or, alternatively, to suspend the first sitting pending Part B of its application, which says the 2024 election results should be set aside and fresh elections held.

Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, Secretary of Parliament Xolile George, President Cyril Ramaphosa and the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) are cited as respondents in the case.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Elections dashboard

In an affidavit, the party’s acting secretary-general Sihle Ngubane argues that the matter need not be dealt with by the Electoral Court as the Constitutional Court has the jurisdiction to deal with the matter.

The party claims it is not reviewing or appealing against the IEC’s dismissals of the objections raised following the 29 May vote, but the IEC’s conduct when it declared the election results.

The party has argued that the determination by the IEC that the elections were free and fair and/or the decision to forge ahead with the declaration of the results of the elections on 2 June 2024 were unconstitutional, unlawful, unreasonable and irrational.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Chaos Is The Point: Zuma threatens IEC, and daughter Duduzile attacks its Commissioner Janet Love

The party also questioned the dismissal of the 579 objections that parties raised during the elections, saying that the process was not impartial.

The party also wants an order saying the Chief Justice and Secretary of Parliament, who have scheduled Friday’s National Assembly sitting, have failed in their constitutional duties, while the IEC failed in its duties in “prematurely” declaring the election results.

It wants the 2024 elections set aside and for the President to be ordered to call new elections to be held within 90 days.

Read in Daily Maverick a legal response to the challenge by MK Party:  Zuma’s MK party may be litigiously backing itself into corner with doomed urgent application 

DM