Despite his Jacob Zuma’s removal from the Parliamentary party list, Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party secretary-general Sihle Ngubane said this does not change that the former president will be on the ballot paper come election day, May 29.
The Constitutional Court led by Justice Leona Theron, on Monday ruled that Zuma will not serve in the National Assembly (NA) until five years after his sentence is completed.
Theron said this was because Zuma was convicted for contempt of court, and sentenced for to 15 months in the Estcourt prison in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) in 2021.
“This court concludes that Zuma was convicted of an offence and sentenced to more than 12 months imprisonment for the purposes of Section 47(1)(e) of the Constitution and is accordingly not eligible to be a member of, and not qualified to stand for election to the National Assembly until five years have elapsed since the completion of the sentence,” Theron said handing down the judgment.
This is after the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) filed an urgent application to challenge Zuma’s eligibility for Parliament.
This means no matter how many seats in Parliament MKP secures, Zuma will not be eligble to serve as a Member of Parliament (MP). His face will, however, appear on the ballot paper for MKP.
Reacting to the news, Ngubane said they were disappointed by the ruling but highlighted that Zuma would run for the elections and nothing would disturb him.
Some of the party members who broke into singing “Wenzeni uZuma” felt that the ruling was influenced and unfairly targeted Zuma.
Ngubane said Zuma would give the party further direction to follow, including taking any action in response to the ruling.
"Zuma will lead us on what to do from here onward, he is still the leader of the party, he is in charge of MKP," he said.
He urged South Africans and supporters of MKP to stay put and wait for the direction because “Zuma leads and commands this party”.
Ngubane said support for MKP would likely be strengthened and galvanised by the ruling and the judgment would not affect their campaigning.
Zuma's daughter Duduzile took to X (formerly Twitter) to say the focus would be on the ballot, and nothing else. "High discipline. High Morale," the tweet read.
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