The Electoral Court has found against suspended MK Party leader Jabulani Khumalo who this week approached the Western Cape High Court seeking to challenge his removal by Parliament from the list of candidates headed to the national legislature.
This comes after the specialist court had handed down its judgment electronically on Wednesday, a day before the Western Cape High Court was scheduled to hear Khumalo’s matter.
The court also rejected forgery claims made by Khumalo against Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla.
In his judgment, Judge Lebogang Modiba said Khumalo’s application was “frivolous and completely devoid of merit”.
“It is unclear why Mr Khumalo persisted with the application because, in his case on urgency, it has become moot. As contended on behalf of the respondents, this application should not have seen the light of day.”
However, it is unlikely that Khumalo will go down without a fight after he and his lawyers on Tuesday approached the Western Cape High Court seeking to be reinstated as leader of the party he helped form last September.
His matter will be heard by the court on Thursday, just a day before Parliament conducts the swearing in of MPs on Friday, which the MK Party has interdicted and seeks to be stopped from proceeding due to allegations of vote rigging.
On Tuesday, Khumalo’s legal representatives confirmed that they filed an urgent application with the Western Cape High Court to force Parliament to recognise him as an eligible MK Party candidate.
This week, in a letter, Parliament revealed that Khumalo had been removed from his party’s candidates list after the MK Party informed the legislature that he was no longer a member.
On the issue of the forging of his signature at the hands of Zuma-Sambudla, the court ruled that there was no basis for this forgery as he was the one who transferred the party’s leadership fully aware of what was happening.
The Electoral Court said: “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 dismissed Khumalo’s matter with costs.
The Star