Media Statement

The African National Congress (ANC) can confirm that our legal team is appearing in the High Court of South Africa (KwaZulu Natal Region) to seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal, alternatively the Full Court of this Division, confident that there are reasonable prospects of success on appeal.

The ANC is determined to petition for a court order that stops Mr. Zuma’s party currently referring to itself as the uMkhonto we Sizwe Party (MKP) from any further unlawful use of the ANC’s trademarks, symbols, and heritage.

The grounds upon which the ANC contends that the Court erred in reaching the conclusions which it sets out include:

• In section 34(1)(c) of the Trade Marks Act, 194 of 1993, the court, in its judgment, found that the mark used by the MK Party was similar to that registered in the name of the ANC. This is all that section 34(1)(c) requires on this issue. The section does not require any further deception or confusion. Yet, this appears to be the primary basis upon which the cause of action was dismissed.

• The court’s further finding that it lacks the jurisdiction to determine the passing off and trade mark infringement cases is novel in the sense that no High Court has ever found that its jurisdiction to determine a trade mark infringement suit or passing off claim has been ousted by statute. For that reason alone, there are reasonable prospects of success in the appeal.

Mr. Zuma and his collaborators, are committing what the ANC considers to be a gross violation of the Trade Marks Act No. 194 of 1993, registered a political party appropriating the uMkhonto we Sizwe logo and related symbols unlawfully.