In South Africa, justice authorizes ex-president Jacob Zuma to participate in elections

Published on : 04/09/2024 – 5:31 p.m.

4 mins

Rebound in South Africa. Former President Jacob Zuma will finally be a candidate in the legislative elections scheduled for the end of May, despite a prison sentence in 2021 which motivated the electoral commission's decision to exclude him from the vote.

South Africans will vote on May 29 to renew their Parliament, which will then choose the next president. At the end of March, the electoral commission (IEC) thwarted the ambitions of Jacob Zuma, 81, by invalidating his candidacy. His party took legal action last week to have this decision overturned.

“The appeal is accepted,” ruled the electoral court in a decision consulted by AFP, adding that the decision of the electoral commission “is annulled”.

Jacob Zuma is a candidate on the list of the recently created small radical party, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK, “Spearhead of the Nation” in Zulu). A former pillar of the African National Congress (ANC) in power for 30 years, this major player in the fight against apartheid created a surprise by announcing in December that he supported the MK.

The ANC, mired in business and held responsible for an economy weighed down by endemic unemployment and growing poverty, fears losing its parliamentary majority for the first time and thus being forced to form a coalition government.

By announcing its decision to exclude Jacob Zuma, the electoral commission recalled the eligibility conditions provided for by the Constitution and underlined in particular that a person sentenced to a prison sentence of more than 12 months cannot run.

Still prosecuted for corruption, the former president (2009-2018) was sentenced in 2021 to 15 months in prison for contempt.

He was released on parole less than three months after his incarceration for health reasons. The country's highest court then ruled that Jacob Zuma should return to prison, but current President Cyril Ramaphosa ultimately reduced his sentence.

At a hearing in Johannesburg on Monday, MK's lawyer, Dali Mpofu, argued that “the final sentence, following the remission, is three months”.

Tensions rise with the ANC

Present in court, Jacob Zuma told a hundred supporters brandishing “Free Jacob Zuma” signs: “If the majority wants me to be president, what could stop them?”

“President Zuma will appear on the ballot papers,” one of the daughters of the former head of state, Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, triumphantly posted Tuesday on X, accompanying her message with a photo of her father, enigmatic smile and narrowed gaze behind thin glasses.

Since the start of the campaign, tension has been growing between the ANC and the MK. At the end of March, the courts rejected a request from the ruling party demanding that MK be removed from the lists of parties registered for the election.

A decision is still awaited after the ANC filed another appeal, this time demanding that MK change its name and logo. Because “MK” was at the time of the fight against the South African segregationist regime the name of the armed wing of the ANC, which denounced a “theft of intellectual property and heritage”.

Authorities recently called for calm, fearing possible unrest. Members of the MK have, in recent weeks, promised on social networks “anarchy in the country” and “riots like never before”, if the justice system “under the influence” puts barriers to the MK before the elections.

The incarceration of Jacob Zuma in 2021 was followed by a wave of riots and looting unprecedented in South Africa since the end of apartheid, leaving more than 350 dead.

According to polls, the ANC could dip to around 40% in the polls. This would benefit the first opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), which would pass the 30% mark, while the MK would obtain more than 10% of the vote, again according to these forecasts.

The final lists of candidates are due to be published on Wednesday.

With AFP