The Umkhonto WeSizwe Party has assured its members and supporters that the party won’t be de-registered.
The reassurances come amid the ongoing debate over whether the founder and now expelled member Jabulani Khumalo had a sole responsibility of de-registering the party.
MK’s spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela told ‘The Star’ on Wednesday that no one will be able to de-register the party other than its party leader president Jacob Zuma.
Ndhlela said Zuma was the only person who can do that, adding that he wouldn’t as he and the leadership want to change lives of majority of South Africans.
“President Zuma is the only person who can de-register the organisation. Khumalo had long been removed from the Electoral Commission’s website as the person that registered the organisation.
“So, there’s no way that he can remove or prevent the organisation from contesting elections,” he explained.
Khumalo registered the party in his name, last year in September. Immediately following his expulsions there were speculation that he might react to his expulsion by de-registering it less than a month before elections.
However, speaking to the publication, Ndhlela revealed that Section 15 did not allow or give him powers to do so by himself.
The party has recently survived attempts by the African National Congress to have it removed from the ballot, it has now emerged new allegations that it forged supporters’ signatures which could threaten the legitimacy of the elections.
But Ndhlela dismissed these claims saying that it was an attempt to undermine democracy and spies using apartheid tactics to sway public opinion against the party.
“Whoever claims that the forged the signature it means they were part of that process. We will also go open a case against the individual who made this allegation against us (MK Party).”
Meanwhile, Elections analysts Michael Atkins said if the allegations were true, it would be sad if the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) would not investigate the matter.
“If there is credible evidence of fraud (a big IF), then the IEC would be remiss if they took no action. The validity of the whole election could be called into question.
“But how does the integrity of the MK submissions get checked if no other parties are similarly scrutinised? And on what legal foundation would the validity of any signatures be checked,” Atkins asked.
He further said, he believed that the law was at fault.
“It was a last-minute (and dare I say, cynical) addition to the Electoral Amendment Bill, to do away with a major criticism. The IEC processes are not at fault in this.”
The Star