ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula has confirmed that the party would appeal the Durban High Court ruling against it over the use of the uMkhonto weSizwe name and logo.
Mbalula said on Monday that they had grounds to lodge an appeal as they believed the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) was trying to mislead the public over the name. He said the MK Party was infringing on the intellectual property of the ANC.
“The ANC will be appealing the matter and prohibiting the unlawful use of the ANC’s trademark and symbols and heritage by Zuma’s party.
“Trademark is about legacy, which we will challenge in the highest court in the land. We are not comparing logos, we are challenging the trademark,” said Mbalula. Judge Mahendra Chetty had granted them leave to appeal and they would appeal, he said.
Mbalula emphasised that Zuma could not use the name MK because the MK was part of the ANC’s legacy.
He said the ANC was not challenging Zuma on forming a party as he had a right to do so. However, he could not use the name and logo associated with the ANC.
“Zuma has now registered a party. He has moved many steps since we suspended him. He is now the leader, not Jabulani Khumalo. He is effectively campaigning against the ANC.”
Mbalula accused Zuma of misappropriating the name of the MK.
Mbalula explained that their court application relied on the Trademarks Act to show that the MKP was improperly using the ANC’s logo. The goodwill that was associated with MK lay with the ANC.
The ANC’s application was dismissed with costs on Monday.
Just last month, the governing party lost another court case: it had lodged an application with the Electoral Court seeking for it to de-register the MKP from the ballot in the coming elections.
The ANC’s argument was based on the belief that the name and logo belonged to it. It accused the MKP of planning to confuse voters.
However, the MKP argued that no one owned the logo and the name; it belonged to every South African.
Independent Media reported yesterday that the ANC also argued in court that when MK was formed in 1961, it was a military wing of the party and would act on the instructions of the leadership.
The military wing of the ANC was formed by both the governing party and the SACP.
Handing over the judgment, Judge Chetty said he was not convinced that the ANC had made a case for the injunctive or consequential relief sought.
The court further said the ANC’s delayed application was self-inflicted, blaming Mbalula for the delay.
“It failed to establish a clear right for final relief, either to the name or to the use of its registered mark. As set out earlier, the ANC had an alternate remedy of approaching the Electoral Court to undo the registration of the MKP on the grounds it advanced in this court.
“It could have achieved substantial redress in that court. For reasons other than contending that only a high court could grant it relief under the Trademarks Act, the reasons for abandoning its remedy through the Electoral Court are not known.
“In light of the conclusions I have reached on the issues of lack of urgency, absence of jurisdiction and non-suiting the ANC in this court as well as finding on the merits of the matter, the application falls to be dismissed,” Judge Chetty said.
Last month, in the other court case where the ANC was seeking to prevent Zuma’s name appearing on the ballot paper, Judge Lebohang Modiba, at the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, stated that the ANC had no basis, dismissing the application and saying the party had only itself to blame.
Speaking to “The Star” yesterday after the court ruling, MKP spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela launched an attack on Mbalula.
“We have always said that Mbalula’s little project was frivolous, nonsensical and egotistic.
“No human being will change the two-thirds majority we are going to get after elections. This is a further step ahead of the elections. People resonate with our logo… Mbalula is an ambulance chaser and a lazy thinker. They should focus on their election campaign rather than us,” he said.
“The Star’s” sister paper, the “Saturday Star”, reported at the weekend that internal wrangling among the legal owners of the MK logo was threatening to boil over and weaken the ANC’s argument in court.
This was despite court papers filed confirming that the logo had been handed over to the governing party. The move, however, did not have the blessing of one of the key members of the NPO Legacy Project, the legal owners of the logo.
The “Saturday Star” reported that the member had highlighted that even though Rapetsi Montsho had said publicly, and in court papers, that organisation had “ceded” the logo to the ANC, there were no minutes to support this.
The Star