Unpacking Zuma’s MK Party ConCourt interdict against the IEC and why they want to prevent Friday’s parliamentary sitting
The Umkhonto Wesizwe (MK) Party on Tuesday filed a two-part application with the Constitutional Court interdicting the first sitting of the National Assembly (NA).
In a nutshell, the MK Party wants Friday’s sitting cancelled because they believe the election results were declared prematurely and they want President Cyril Ramaphosa to proclaim a new date for another election within three months.
This comes after Chief Justice Raymond Zondo announced that the first sitting of the NA will take place on Friday as well the vote for the President and Parliamentary Speakers - all of which the MK Party has slammed as unconstitutional.
What the court documents say
According to the court application; the MK Party states that the NA is not properly constituted unless there are no less than 350 members and no more than 400 as prescribed in Section 46 of the Constitution.
The said members have been sworn into office by taking the prescribed oath in terms of Section 48 of the Constitution; that the impugned conduction, the Chief Justice and/or the Secretary to Parliament amounts to a failure to fulfil a Constitutional obligation prescribed in Section 7 of the Constitution.
In addition they argue that the conduct/decision of IEC in prematurely declaring the 2024 elections as free and fair and declaring the results thereof.
MK Party’s ‘salient background and legal grounds for the application’
The MK Party secretary-general, Sihle Ngubane, said a large number of the objections, which have been finalised by the IEC, have not been satisfactorily dealt with and will be pursued in the appropriate forums.
In his founding affidavit, Ngubane added that despite a number of political parties expressing grievances with the election results and around more than 500 objections, the IEC chairperson chose to make the declaration.
"On June 2, at approximately 6pm, indeed the ceremony proceeded as planned and as if nothing had happened. In the intervening period, the IEC had dismissed all the 579 objections as individually invalid or immaterial.
"It is these consequential steps, all tainted by the unlawfulness of the declaration of the freeness and fairness of the elections and/or the declaration of the results which must also be set aside.
"Conversely, the elections and/or the first sitting of the NA cannot lawfully survive the illegality of these preceding steps," Ngubane's affidavit read.
It added that the IEC had until June 5 to declare the results.
The MK Party also submitted to the apex court, reasons behind the technical glitches experienced when the IEC's results dashboard crashed.
In its statement declaring Friday’s first sitting, the Judiciary said after members have been sworn in or the prescribed affirmation administered, the Chief Justice will preside over the election of a Speaker of the NA.
"He or she will then preside over the election of the deputy speaker. After the deputy speaker has been elected, the Chief Justice will then take over and preside over the election of the President.
The Judiciary has yet to comment on the latest court applications by the MK Party.
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