MK Party Takes IEC to Court Again, SA Amused As Jacob Zuma’s Movement Wants New Elections Held

• The uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) is challenging the result of the 2024 National Elections once more
• The MK Party also filed papers to ask that the court orders the president to call for new elections to be held
• South Africans are amused by the party's calls, with some saying Jacob Zuma just wanted to stay relevant

Briefly News journalist Byron Pillay has dedicated a decade to reporting on the South African political landscape, crime, and social issues. He spent 10 years working for the Northern Natal Courier before transitioning to online journalism.

It’s been a year since the 2024 National Elections were held, and the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) is still challenging the result.

Jacob Zuma’s political movement has maintained that the election was not free and fair, calling for the results to be scrapped and a new election to be held.

The party has now approached the courts for the third time, asking that the results be set aside.

MK Party questions two-hour results leaderboard downtime

The party’s latest appeal, which will be heard by the Electoral Court, centres around the two hours that the leaderboard was offline at the Results Operation Centre (ROC) on 31 May 2024.

The party’s legal counsel, Thabani Masuku SC, argues that there was no credible explanation as to why the leaderboard was down for so long. He added that this led to one conclusion, which was that the election results were not reflective of the will of the people.

Along with its application, the party also filed papers on Friday, 30 May 2024, asking the court to order President Cyril Ramaphosa to call for a new election within 90 days of the order being granted.

MK Party’s previous court challenges

The latest application is the third since the 2024 National Elections were described as free and fair a year ago. The first, which was at the Constitutional Court, failed. In its second application, which was to the Electoral Court, the party claimed vote rigging and fraud. The MKP claimed that 9.3 million votes were missing, but they withdrew that application to collate further evidence.

The party’s latest allegation deals with the leaderboard downtime but does not focus on the alleged missing votes.

The Electoral Commission has described the court challenge as an abuse of process.

What you need to know about the MKP and IEC

• The MK Party accused the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) of vote rigging.
• The party withdrew its Electoral Court application against the elections in July 2024.
• Zuma claimed that the party was robbed, saying they had evidence of this.
• In December 2024, the party considered approaching an international court over the matter.
• An IEC official appeared in court after the party accused him of vote tampering.

South Africans amused by the latest application

Social media users were amused by the party’s latest attempt to have the election declared null and void, with some saying Zuma was an attention seeker.

Mpho Raphunga said:

“I'm beginning to believe that Zuma is an attention seeker.”

Leon Solomons stated:

“A hungry lion is an angry lion🤣. This Zuma guy is really obsessed with destructive tactics.”

Finally Alex added:

“The results of giving people parole.”

Walter MuZi Mvuka joked:

“Just like the owner of this party. Daily court hearings.”

Mohau Mofokeng said:

“This old man is a pandemic to the country.”

Tumelo Ke Rapholo added:

“Trying to keep himself in the media.”

Thabiso Phori vented:

“We have serious problems in this country. Women and children are killed every second in this country, and the SA media is telling us about this useless madala and his useless party challenging the 2024 elections. What a shame.”

MKP embarks on "Where is my vote" march

Briefly News reported in March 2025 that the MK Party was embarking on a two-day march.

The "Where is my vote" march was planned as a way to protest the 2024 election results.

South Africans were amused by the party's repeated claims that they were robbed during the elections.

Source: Briefly News