By Abimbola Ogunnaike with agency report
South Africa’s Constitutional Court ruled Monday, 20 May, 2024 that former President, Jacob Zuma is ineligible to be elected a member of the National Assembly in next week’s general election.
The top court threw out Zuma’s complaint against an electoral commission decision that a previous conviction for contempt prevented him from becoming an MP.
This decision by the court may deepen political turmoil in the country just over a week before a crucial national election.
The latest development could draw the curtain on the political career of the 82-year-old Zuma, a former anti-apartheid hero who once led the liberation party, the African National Congress. Mr. Zuma had a bitter falling out with the A.N.C. last year after announcing he was supporting a new political formation.
The Constitutional Court, overturning a special electoral court’s earlier decision, ruled that Zuma could not stand as a candidate in the May 29 election because of a past criminal conviction.
Even though he cannot serve in Parliament, Zuma’s face will still appear on the ballot next to his new party, uMkhonto weSizwe, because he is registered as its leader, according to the Electoral Commission of South Africa.
As a populist figure who attracts a devoted following, Zuma’s image could be enough to lift his party’s fortunes and hurt the A.N.C., which is fighting to maintain the absolute majority it has held since the start of South Africa’s democracy 30 years ago.
Zuma resigned from the presidency in 2018 amid widespread protests over allegations of sweeping corruption within his government. Three years later, he was convicted and sentenced for failing to testify at a public inquiry on corruption.
Zuma’s attempted political comeback has created a big test for South Africa’s young democracy.
He became the first former president to serve prison time in post-apartheid South Africa after his arrest in July 2021, though he was released on medical parole just two months into his 15-month sentence. The Constitutional Court later overturned his medical parole, but Mr. Zuma then received a presidential pardon from his successor-turned-political rival, Cyril Ramaphosa.
The court’s decision was based on the length of Zuma’s sentence. While he was granted a remission that reduced his time in prison, he had been sentenced to 15 months, which made him ineligible to run, the court decided.
According to South African law, a person who has been convicted of an offense and sentenced to more than 12 months in prison cannot serve in the National Assembly.
“It is declared that Zuma was convicted of an offense and sentenced to more than 12 months’ imprisonment,” Justice Leona Theron said.
Zuma is not “eligible and not qualified” to stand for election until five years after the completion of his sentence, the justice added.
During a marathon court appearance on May 10, Mr. Zuma’s lawyers tried to force the Constitutional Court justices to recuse themselves, arguing that the same justices who had sentenced him were ruling on his eligibility for Parliament. That argument was dismissed.
Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, a lawyer representing the electoral commission, which had opposed Zuma’s candidacy, argued that the law barring those convicted of a crime from running for a seat in the National Assembly “served to protect the public from lawbreakers now putting themselves up as lawmakers.”
Zuma’s decision to lead and campaign for an opposition party had deeply unsettled South African politics. Founded in December, uMkhonto weSizwe, or M.K., has quickly become one of the most visible opposition organizations in an election in which a record 52 parties are vying for votes on the national ballot.
South Africans vote for a party instead of an individual, but M.K. appears to be banking on the appeal of a familiar face: Zuma’s image is all over its campaign posters and T-shirts.
The party has already gained a foothold in the KwaZulu-Natal Province, Zuma’s traditional stronghold. Polls show that Zuma’s party could play kingmaker in a coalition government in the province.
The party has attracted voters who are aggrieved by the governing African National Congress A.N.C., but it has also eaten into the support of smaller opposition parties who have struggled to gain a foothold.
Over the weekend, Zuma took his campaign to Soweto, once the heart of A.N.C. support in Johannesburg, South Africa’s largest city, where his supporters filled a soccer stadium.
Zuma’s arrest and incarceration in 2021 set off deadly riots, and observers fear that his barring from Parliament could again lead to violence.
Source: The New York Times
