(Bloomberg) — South Africa’s Constitutional Court has been excluded Jacob Zuma of running for parliament, but that will do little to stymie the former president’s bid to shake up next week’s elections in the continent’s most industrialized economy, where his upstart party remains the biggest wildcard. to disrupt.
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The country’s highest court has disqualified the 82-year-old from his 2021 conviction in connection with an investigation into the plunder of more than $27 billion in state funds during his presidency. Zuma’s face will remain on the ballot in the May 29 elections – in which the ruling African National Congress could lose its majority for the first time since the end of apartheid three decades ago, partly because of the corruption and neglect that characterized his tenure.
Some polls suggest Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe Party, or MKP, could win more than 10% of the vote – partly at the expense of the ANC. Zuma was convicted of contempt in 2021 for refusing to testify at an inquest into transplantation while in office and sentenced to 15 months in prison – sparking riots that claimed 354 lives. Some of his supporters had threatened to destabilize the election if he was disqualified, although a top party official rejected that idea after the court ruling.
“You now get a much more emboldened MKP” and it can behave “more aggressively, more hostilely or more vengefully,” says Sanusha Naidu, a Cape Town-based research fellow at the Institute for Global Dialogue. “This is now a Knesset member with nothing to lose,” and the verdict could embolden his supporters, with major consequences for the ANC, she added.
Read more: Jacob Zuma is back at 82 to shake up South Africa’s elections
Zuma, who served as president from 2009 to 2018, will remain the leader of the MPK, said Sihle Ngubane, the party’s secretary-general.
“We will abide by the ruling of the Constitutional Court because President Zuma is a law-abiding citizen,” Ngubane said by telephone. “Nobody has to worry about violence breaking out.
South Africa’s constitution prohibits anyone sentenced to more than 12 months in prison from being a member of parliament.
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Zuma “is therefore ineligible to be a member of, and is not qualified to stand for, election to the National Assembly until five years have elapsed since the completion of his sentence,” Constitutional Justice Judge Leona Theron said Court in a judgment in Johannesburg. on Monday.
Zuma was released on parole after serving less than two months of his sentence. Although the court ruled that his release was unlawful, he was pardoned by President Cyril Ramaphosa in November last year.
Ramaphosa said he was not concerned about further unrest.
“Should there be any threat of violence, our security forces are ready,” he said in an interview on 702 Talk Radio on Monday. “We won’t even mince our words when it comes to something like this.”
–With help from Paul Richardson, Alister Bull, Arijit Ghosh and Ana Monteiro.
(Updates with details throughout.)
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