ANC granted leave to appeal dismissal of challenge to MK Party logo matter
The court has now granted the ANC leave to appeal on the basis that another court could find differently.
Picture: AFP
JOHANNESBURG - The African National Congress (ANC) has been granted leave to appeal the dismissal of its challenge to the MK Party’s use of the name and logo of its disbanded anti-apartheid military wing.
In April, the High Court in Durban found against the ANC in the matter.
The party subsequently lodged an application for leave to appeal, which was heard last week.
Judgment was handed down on Thursday.
In its April ruling, the High Court found that it didn’t have jurisdiction to hear the matter and that it should, instead, have been before the Electoral Court.
Last week, though, the ANC argued that the court had erred when it came to the way it characterised the case and that while the court had framed it as being about the protection of a political party's rights to free and fair elections, it was in fact about trademark law.
The court has now granted the ANC leave to appeal on the basis that another court could find differently.
The case will now head to the Supreme Court of Appeal.
Meanwhile, the ANC said it's willing to take the fight for the name uMkhonto weSizweto to the Constitutional Court.
ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula told journalists during a post-National Executive Committee briefing at Luthuli House that the party will continue fighting for what it believes is rightfully theirs.
"He's got support, he must have his own party call it ZM, Zuma Mayibuye party, that will be fine. The ANC will never go there, you call it uMkhonto weSizwe, that is our heritage, we will fight for it," Mbalula said.