FORMER president Jacob Zuma cannot be a lawmaker because he is a lawbreaker.
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) told the Electoral Court sitting in the Joburg High Court on Monday, 8 April that Zuma was a serious offender therefore disqualified to be a member of Parliament.
The IEC’s legal representative, Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi SC said it was wrong to think that the 15-month sentence imposed by the Constitutional Court was reduced to three months after Zuma was granted remission.
“The distinction is that it must be imposed by a judge. The president has no power to impose a sentence,” he said.
“The remission never changed the sentence. It never said you are no longer sentenced to 15 months, now you are sentenced to three months. It simply determined the period of the release. The executive is entitled to do that.”
Ngcukaitobi said the electoral commission has the power to decide the objection based on section 47 of the Constitution.
According to section 47 of the Constitution, no person convicted for more than 12 months, without the option of a fine, is allowed to hold public office.
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In 2021, Zuma was sentenced to 15 months without an option of a fine for ignoring a court order to testify at an inquiry into corruption during his tenure.
Two years later, he was among 9 488 prisoners serving sentences less than two years for non-violent crimes who were granted remission by President Cyril Ramaphosa to cut short their sentences.
The IEC received an objection to Zuma’s inclusion on the ballot in April.
Ngcukaitobi said the reason the lawmakers put the sentence at 12 months was because it was a signal of the seriousness not only of the conviction but of the offence.
“The reason they also make it clear that there should be no option of a fine is because what the Constitution drafters are trying to tell us is that serious lawbreakers cannot be lawmakers,” he said.
He said Zuma’s reliance on remission was misguided because it didn't render the court’s sentence academic.
“Mr Zuma should not be in Parliament. It's as clear as that,” said Ngcukaitobi.
The MK leader had told the court earlier that the IEC had no authority to bar him from going to Parliament.
Zuma’s lawyer Advocate Dali Mpofu SC told the court it was the National Assembly that could determine if a person was eligible to be a member of Parliament.
“The IEC must show this court where it gets authority to implement section 47. You don’t say when you apply the rule of law, well you can do anything that you are not prohibited from doing. No, it doesn't work like that. It says we can only do those things that were authorised by law to do,” said Mpofu.
Mpofu told the court that denying Zuma to stand in the 29 May elections would be denying millions of MK supporters who would want the former president to represent them in Parliament.
“When the Constitution disenfranchises somebody, it will not be met with silence,” he said.
Judgment is expected to be delivered on Tuesday, 9 April.
