2024 South Africa Election: ANC Loses Battle For Zuma’s MK Party

In shocking news regarding the 2024 South Africa Election, ANC has lost the battle for Zuma’s MK party name and logo.

South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC) has lost a judicial effort to block a new party from utilizing the name and symbols of its erstwhile armed wing.

The governing ANC had alleged that uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), commanded by ex-President Jacob Zuma, had broken trademark law.

But the Durban High Court disagreed, permitting the use of the name, which translates as Spear of the Nation.

When Is The Election?

It is a big victory for MK ahead of the 29 May 2024 South Africa election. Mr Zuma’s supporters celebrated and chanted in court when the verdict was announced.

The ANC has announced it will appeal against the ruling. Last month, the ANC suffered another legal blow in its bid to block MK from participating in the election, arguing it had not met the statutory registration criteria.

The MK name and logo carries tremendous political resonance because of the now-defunct armed wing’s role in fighting for the abolition of white-minority rule in South Africa.

Who Might Win The Elections?

The new MK party may not win the election, but it is likely to hurt the ANC, which may lose its outright majority in parliament for the first time since apartheid ended in 1994.’

Mr Zuma, a former supporter of the ANC who formerly served in its military wing, was South Africa’s president for nine years from 2009.

He was pushed from power and replaced by current President Cyril Ramaphosa in part over corruption charges, which Mr Zuma denies.

Visvin Reddy – the provincial leader of MK in KwaZulu-Natal, Mr Zuma’s home province where he enjoys strong support – said it was the best possible news for the party that was founded in December.

Opinions Regarding This Issue

He told the TV channel Newsroom Afrika from outside the courthouse in Durban that the ANC’s legal challenges to the party’s existence indicated it was running terrified.

In a 42-page verdict, Judge Mahendra Chetty stated the ANC’s argument was truly a matter for an electoral court, not the high court. He said that the high court was therefore not the forum to “settle a dispute where there are competing historical accounts of events which took place almost 60 years ago, as to who may rightfully lay claim to the name uMkhonto we Sizwe”.

When it came to the symbols confronting voters on the voting paper, the judge said he was of the view that there would be no confusion.

The ANC’s trademark over the MK emblem was registered for “education; providing of training; entertainment; sporting and cultural activities”, he claimed.

“It was not entirely clear to me how the use of the mark in political activities” would fit under that category, he added.

However, ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula stated that the trademark was “about legacy” and that the party will appeal the verdict “to stop and prohibit the unlawful use of the ANC’s trademarks, symbols, and heritage by Mr Zuma’s party”.

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