ANC loses battle over Zuma’s MK party name and logo

South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC) has lost a legal bid to prevent a new party from using the name and logo of its former armed wing.

The ruling ANC argued that uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), led by former president Jacob Zuma, violated trademark law.

But the Durban High Court disagreed, allowing the use of the name, which translates as Spear of the Nation.

It is a significant victory for MK ahead of the May 29 general elections.

Zuma’s supporters applauded and shouted in court after the sentence was handed down.

Last month, the ANC suffered another legal blow in its attempt to block MK from running in elections, saying it did not meet official registration criteria.

The MK name and logo carry enormous political symbolism due to the role of the now-defunct armed wing in the fight to end white minority rule in South Africa.

The new MK party may not have a chance of winning the elections, but it will probably harm the ANC, which, for the first time since the end of apartheid in 1994, could lose its absolute majority in parliament.

Zuma, a longtime ANC stalwart who once served in its armed wing, was president of South Africa for nine years from 2009.

He was forced from power and replaced by current President Cyril Ramaphosa, partly due to allegations of corruption, which Zuma denies.

Visvin Reddy – the MK provincial leader in KwaZulu-Natal, Zuma’s home province, where he enjoys considerable support – said it was the best possible news for the party which was launched in December.

He told Newsroom Afrika television channel outside the court in Durban that the ANC’s legal challenges to the party’s existence showed it was scared.

The ANC has not yet commented.

Earlier this month, an electoral court overturned the electoral commission’s ban on the 82-year-old former president’s candidacy for a parliamentary seat.

The Constitution prohibits people from holding public office if they are convicted of a crime and sentenced to more than 12 months in prison.

Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in prison in 2021 for failing to testify in a corruption investigation, although he only served three months for health reasons and received a remission of his sentence from Ramaphosa.

The electoral court has not yet given the reason for its decision, but Zuma’s lawyers argued that the remission meant that his sentence had been “set aside”.

The electoral commission has now lodged an urgent appeal with the highest court, the Constitutional Court, in an attempt to overturn the electoral court’s verdict.

In another court case, the ANC failed in an attempt to get the electoral commission to cancel MK’s registration as a political party contesting the elections.