Expelled members: Zuma is a dictator!

THE MK party and its 10 expelled MPs have failed to settle out of court.

The Western High Court had to abruptly halt proceedings on Tuesday, 3 September, when the lawyer representing the aggrieved members, Advocate Simba Chitando, informed the judge that he had received new instructions.

"My Lady, there's never a doubt in South African politics. I've just received instructions that the parties might have settled," Chitando said.

The 10, dubbed MKp10, are among the 18 MPs who were dismissed last month shortly after they were sworn in on 22 June as members of the National Assembly (NA).

After a long adjournment, the parties returned to court and informed judge Kate Savage they couldn't reach an agreement.

The MKp10 is challenging their removal on the basis that the party didn't follow due process, making their expulsion unlawful.

They demand reinstatement and their seats in Parliament.

Chitando had told the court that his clients should interdict MK from filling the positions and interdict the NA Speaker, Thoko Didiza, from administering the oath or solemn affirmation.

He said without the interdict, there's no legal impediment to the nomination of new members.

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He said their positions have not been filled in despite MK appointing new MPs recently.

Chitando pointed out that MK President Jacob Zuma said in his court papers that "serious political and security reasons" and that because political parties "operate in highly competitive, susceptible to infiltration even politically motivated and violent, which must be avoided and prevented at all costs," informed his decision.

"Those are the words of a dictator who says that there may be problems in governing this party democratically, and those problems are politically motivated violence, infiltration and a highly competitive space. Those are the reasons he mustn't govern his party in a manner that is consistent with right to just administrative action. That is his excuse."

Chitando further said Zuma admitted he didn't know all MK members and that there was no verification system.

He said Zuma can't do whatever he likes without consequences and without following the law.

"That's why it boggles the mind how the MK party is in any position to be appointing and removing anyone from the NA when they admit they don't know who their members are, which is why a review application is important and that's why the interdict stops this chaos from continuing to flow this revolving door of the NA," he said.

MK lawyer Nikiwe Nyathi admitted the dismissed members were on the list.

She said their membership had been terminated on 24 June.

Nyathi said former party secretary-general Thanduxolo "Gorbachev" Dyodo mishandled the list.

"How they came to be MPs or sworn in, as it's stated in their founding affidavits, is an anomaly because it means they arrived there without the membership. A jurisdictional fact that allowed them to be an MP, to begin with, didn't exist to begin with at that stage," she said.

Nyathi said members were trying to retain benefits they had no entitlement to.

She asked the court to dismiss the application because no exceptional circumstances existed.

Judgment was reserved.