Apex Court Bars Former President Jacob Zuma from Running in South Africa’s Elections
The Constitutional Court issued a unanimous decision disqualifying Zuma from running for parliament under his new political party.
Former South African President Jacob Zuma bows his head while praying during the Shekainah Healing Ministries Prophetic Pillowcase service in Philippi, near Cape Town, on March 10, 2024 ahead of the South African Presidential elections scheduled for May 29, 2024.
It is now confirmed that the former South African president, Jacob Zuma, will not run in the country’s upcoming general elections on May 29. The country’s Constitutional Court ruled that Zuma cannot run for office for at least two more years, due to his conviction for contempt of court in 2021.
The ruling overturns last month’s decision by the electoral court, which ruled in favor of a petition brought forward by Zuma after the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) declared him ineligible for the elections. At the time, it was thought that Zuma would participate in the elections, and aim to become South Africa’s president again. However, the IEC appealed the electoral court’s ruling and has now won the case in South Africa’s apex court, dealing a huge blow to any of such ambitions at least in this election cycle.
In the unanimous decision handed down by Justice Leona Theron, the 15-month prison sentence Zuma received in 2021, for contempt of court, disqualifies his potential candidacy. The Constitution states that a person cannot run for public office for five years if they’ve been sentenced to a prison term that exceeds 12 months.
Zuma's conviction was for ignoring several calls to appear at the Zondo panel probing corruption and state capture allegations during his tumultuous nine years as president. However, he did not serve his full sentence, as he was released just two months later on medical parole.
In addition to arguing that Zuma was convicted through civil proceedings and not a criminal trial, the former president’s legal team also stated that he didn’t stay in prison for over twelve months. In its ruling, the Constitutional Court stated that the early release doesn’t change the sentence term.
Zuma recently abandoned the African National Congress (ANC) for the newly-formed uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, no relation to the seminal paramilitary wing of the ANC during apartheid. His popularity is expected to swing votes away from his former party, especially in his home region of KwaZulu-Natal.
While he won’t be able to run, Zuma’s face will be on the ballots as the leader of MK, and observers believe his ineligibility doesn’t change too much about the MK’s chances during the elections. “I think, in the end, it's not going to make such a major impact on MK because it does not disqualify [Zuma] from being the leader of the party,” political analyst Dirk Kotzetold Eyewitness News.
“The only impact will be much later, when they are in parliament and he’s not the parliamentary leader of the party and they will have to clarify who then is the parliamentary leader of the party. But in terms of the election itself, it changes very little.”
Others believe that Zuma’s ineligibility for parliament means that there’s a limit to which he can parlay his influence, especially with the ANC’s parliamentary majority projected to be 50 percent which will necessitate the need for a coalition to ensure the party retains presidential power.
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