MK Party representatives will take their seats in National Assembly

After taking legal advice, MK Party members will soon occupy their seats in the National Assembly, despite the party's misgivings that the recently concluded national elections were rigged.

Briefing the media on Sunday, MK Party president Jacob Zuma said the party would continue to raise the issue of irregularities inside the National Assembly while pursuing its complaint about alleged electoral irregularities in court.

Zuma said the newly formed progressive caucus of parties attained close to 30% of representation in the National Assembly.

“We strongly believe was it not for massive electoral fraud or other irregularities, that number would be far higher and perhaps in a majority.”

He said even after the “daylight robbery”, to achieve the almost 30% in the National Assembly “puts us in a very strong position to fight for the total liberation of black and African people”.

Zuma said the MK was of the strong view that the 2024 elections were rigged and that his party had raised these concerns with the IEC before made a pronouncement on the fairness of the election results.

“The most frustrating treatment was when 26 political parties lodged almost 600 objections on the evening of June 1 at the IEC results centre.”

He said within minutes of making cries for fairness until objections were heard, the chair of the IEC told the media and country that the IEC was going ahead to announce results as planned. 

This was despite the fact that the IEC had another four days before it could release results.

“It is our strong view that the premature declaration of results was totally illegal. The only reason for rushing was to please the markets. It is the people who voted, not the markets. The constitutional mandate of the IEC is to serve the voting public, not the markets.” 

Zuma said the party had instructed its legal team to take any action necessary to ensure that justice was done.

The MK Party on Friday applied to the Electoral Court to declare that the May 29 elections were not free and fair and that new elections must be held.

“We cannot allow a situation where a million votes had been stolen. The legal team will report on the possible avenues which are available. We are always expected to accept what is clearly unacceptable. We say enough is enough,” Zuma said.

He called on people to demand to be informed what happened to their votes.

“We will therefore in the right time call on our people to demonstrate their dissatisfaction against all of these injustices peacefully in the streets, in the courts and in parliament until all our grievances have been addressed.”

Zuma also said there was no government of national unity in South Africa and instead described it as an “unholy alliance” between the ANC of Ramaphosa and the DA.

“It is sponsored by big business. It is for the benefit of the markets. It must be crushed before it finds its feet.”

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