Zuma’s MK party drags IEC to court over 2024 election blackout
· Citizen
Former president Jacob Zuma’s MK party has hit back at accusations that its bid to overturn the 2024 election results is the act of a “grumpy loser,” insisting before the Electoral Court that a two‑hour blackout of the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC) live results dashboard may have compromised the integrity of the polls.
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The Electoral Court heard the party’s bid to have the 2024 national and provincial elections set aside on Wednesday.
Urgent application
It comes nearly two years after the MK party alleged that the 2024 national and provincial polls were rigged.
The MK party lodged an urgent application with the Electoral Court seeking to set aside the outcome of the 2024 general election and direct President Cyril Ramaphosa to proclaim a new election date within 90 days.
The party argues that the results may have been compromised when the live election results dashboard went offline for about two hours during the counting process, potentially allowing manipulation.
It later withdrew the case without giving reasons, but then decided to continue the matter in the Constitutional Court (ConCourt).
Judgment was reserved in the matter.
Court battles
During proceedings on Wednesday, 17 June 2026, the party’s legal team, led by advocate Thabani Masuku, argued that the court should hear oral evidence from technical experts about the circumstances surrounding the outage.
“It was not prompted by a system’s failure. So, what we know is that there was no malfunctioning system, there was some intervention.”
Constitutional burden
Masuku argued that, to determine whether the IEC has discharged its constitutional burden, one must understand when questions have been raised about whether the conduct is constitutional or affects constitutional rights.
“The onus shifts, it does not remain with the person who is alleging, who’s making the allegation. It shifts to the IEC. So, when the IEC considered that there was a system failure for two hours, it was caused by their conduct, and they cannot assure the public that after intervention in that system, what they needed to correct was corrected,” Masuku argued.
‘Abuse’
However, the IEC’s advocate, Wim Trengrove, argued that the MK party is abusing the litigation norms.
“What emerges from the factual matrix is a pattern of conduct by the MK Party that deviates from standard litigation practice. Central to the assessment is the MK party’s awareness of the prior unsuccessful application before the Constitutional Court. This should have cautioned a more cautious and comprehensive approach in presenting the case to this court.”
IEC happy
IEC CEO Sy Mamabolo said the commission is happy with the evidence presented in court.
“We’ve been very candid and open with the court. We are quite happy with the evidence we placed before the court, which we believe to be consonant with our constitutional responsibilities.
“We do believe we’ve provided evidence of what happened during the two hours by providing the system logs, which are important to prove that the result system was not broken. broken, was not compromised. We’ve been open with the court, and we’ve been mindful of our constitutional responsibilities,” Mamabolo said.
Voter confidence
Mamabolo was not fazed by the impact the case may have on voter confidence ahead of the local government election in November.
“Of course, it’s a case we can do without in a democracy, but it has been brought; it has to be answered. We’ve answered it, and we’ve answered it as candidly as we should, and we are confident that the court now will consider all the merits and come to a judicious determination of the matter.
“We’re not fearful. We recognise MK’s constitutional right to take to litigate, we take no issue with that. We call on their supporters, if not registered, to register this weekend, and ultimately to vote for their party when elections are held later in the year. The mere fact that there is this case does not stop the wheels of democracy from rolling; they roll, and they should,” Mamabolo said.
MK party
The MK party performed well in the 2024 polls, becoming the third-largest party in the country after the DA and the ANC.
It received 15% of the national votes, replacing the EFF in third spot. It contested the polls almost a year after its launch in December 2023 under the ticket of radical economic transformation.