10 ex-MPs who want jobs back weren't MK Party members when they were sworn in, court hears
The party told the Western Cape High Court there wasn’t enough time to vet its candidate lists before they were submitted to the IEC and the disgruntled group should never have found their way to Parliament to begin with.
Lawyer for the MK Party, Nikiwe Nyathi (left), and Simba Chitando (right) for the dismissed MK MPs in the Western Cape High Court on 3 September 2024. Picture: Lindsay Dentlinger/EWN
CAPE TOWN - The uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party said that ten of its former MPs who want their jobs back were not party members when they were sworn in as parliamentarians in June.
The party told the Western Cape High Court there wasn’t enough time to vet its candidate lists before they were submitted to the Electoral Commission (IEC) and the disgruntled group should never have found their way to Parliament to begin with.
The group insists they are legitimate members of the party and say their expulsions are bogus.
They are asking the court to prevent Parliament from replacing them until their expulsions are verified.
MK Party lawyer, Nikiwe Nyathi, said the court should dismiss this urgent application because the applicants’ membership was terminated.
She said that their inclusion on the MK Party’s candidate list was both improper and irregular and done without consultation by the party’s former acting secretary-general.
Nyathi told the court that an internal investigation revealed the list process had been mishandled.
She said that the membership of the affected MPs was terminated two days before their swearing-in in Parliament in June.
Nyathi said it was an anomaly how the applicants got deployed to Parliament.
She’s asking the court for a punitive costs order, saying the applicants knew their membership had been terminated two months ago.
Judgment has been reserved.