The Electoral Court has dismissed expelled uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party leader Jabulani Khumalo’s claim to party leadership.
The Specialist Court handed down judgment electronically on Wednesday which dismissed his application with punitive costs.
The court rejected his forgery allegations against MK leader Jacob Zuma.
His application was dismissed with costs.
The court also said Khumalo’s signature was not forged and he transferred the party’s leadership fully aware of the consequences.
“As contended by the respondents, expert evidence is necessary to prove the allegation that the signature on JK6 is forged. It is inappropriate for counsel for Mr Khumalo to compare the two letters from the bar with reference to the writing style, formatting, letterheads and different signatures. The court places no reliance on these submissions.”
“It is disconcerting that on his version, Mr Khumalo never reverted to the Commission to resolve the leadership issue to ensure that Mr Zuma’s photo is placed on the ballot paper, but accepted, without more, that Mr Zuma’s photo did in fact appear on the ballot paper.
“He only did so two weeks later, complaining of the alleged fraud perpetrated on dates that do not correspond with the communication sequence between Mr Khumalo and the Commission regarding the use of Mr Zuma’s photo on the ballot paper and the date on which Ms Zuma-Sambudla sent JK6 to the Commission,” the Electoral Court said.
The court also cited, among other things, that Khumalo’s application constitutes an “abuse of the court’s process.”
“The application also constitutes an abuse of this Court’s process and a waste of its judicial economy and the opposing respondents’ resources. They have incurred legal costs opposing an application that should not have seen the light of day.
“It would be unfair to leave the respondents out of pocket under these circumstances. A punitive costs order against Mr Khumalo is the most appropriate way of censuring Mr Khumalo’s conduct and sending a message to the public that making false statements under oath and abuse of this court’s process will not be countenanced,” the court ruled.
Khumalo failed in an urgent application to the Electoral Court to get his expulsion from the MK party declared invalid and unlawful, and that he be reinstated as the organisation’s leader with immediate effect.
Zuma ousted Khumalo and other MK party leaders weeks before the national and provincial elections.
Khumalo was expelled from the MK party in April with current leader Jacob Zuma referring to him as an interim leader.
In papers before the court, Khumalo argued that the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) acted outside the scope of the Electoral Commission Act when it recorded Zuma as the president of the new political organisation.
This article first appeared in The Citizen and is republished with permission.
