The Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, has ordered Standard Bank to remove expelled MK Party member, Jabulani Khumalo, as a signatory to the party’s bank account.
In the court ruling (dated September 17), Khumalo was also ordered to pay the full costs of the court application.
On September 16, Khumalo filed an application for leave to appeal, in which he sought the court’s intervention to rule that he be allowed as one of the signatories to the party’s bank account.
“The first respondent (Khumalo)’s late filling of his answering affidavit is condoned. The fourth respondent (Standard Bank) is directed to remove, upon receipt of this order, the names of the first, second and the third respondents as bank signatories on the applicant’s bank account.
“The first respondent is ordered to pay the costs of this application, such costs to be calculated on a scale as between attorney and client, such costs to include the costs occasioned by the employment of two counsel, such counsel fees to be taxed on scale C and respectively,” the court ruled.
The court following its judgement said that Khumalo was aware that the account in question was the property of the MK Party.
“At the hearing of this application, it was common cause that this bank account held with the Fourth Respondent (Standard Bank) was the bank account of the applicant (MKP). It was further common cause that such account held funds paid to the applicant, either through donations, or in terms of the Political Party Funding Act 6 of 2018. It was also common cause that the first respondent had no personal entitlement to the funds in this account,” reads part of the ruling.
In a statement, the MK Party welcomed the judgement.
Party spokesperson, Nhlamulo Ndhlela, said: “The MK Party welcomes the ruling of the Pretoria High Court in favour of the MK Party against former member Jabulani Khumalo, ordering him to pay punitive costs to the MK Party.
“This follows a series of related court victories by the MK Party against many detractors in the past six months. It started when the ANC of Ramaphosa failed double challenges to the registration of the MK Party in the Electoral Court and the abortive trademark challenge in the Durban High Court.
“Next was a series of unsuccessful bids by Khumalo and other expelled members, first in the general court, then in the Western Cape High Court and now at the Pretoria High Court,” he said.
Ndhlela accused Khumalo of befriending well-funded enemies of the MK Party in order to challenge it in the courts.
“It is clear that Khumalo is well funded by the enemies of the MK Party. He continues to collect punitive cost orders and we welcome any indirect ANC donations to the coffers as we build the organisation,” he added.
The Star