The uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party has asked the electoral court to hear oral evidence in its application to have the results of last year’s national and provincial elections set aside.
(Darren Stewart/Gallo Images)
The computer expert central to the uMkhonto weSizwe party electoral court challenge to the outcome of the 29 May elections faces being dismissed by the KwaZulu-Natal government’s Moses Kotane Research Institute for assisting the MK party.
Vusi Mhlongo, the executive manager for innovation and technology at the institute, which falls under the department of economic development and tourism, has been slapped with five disciplinary charges, four of which stem from his involvement with the Jacob Zuma-led party.
According to the MK party’s legal team, Mhlongo has received death threats over the phone and in text messages, and has been subjected to a campaign of harassment on social media for providing them with his expertise.
Mhlongo has compiled a technical report on the basis of which the MK party is attempting to prove that the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) failed to maintain the integrity of its IT system during the counting process and that its results were inaccurate.
The MK party has asked the electoral court for an order overturning the election result and compelling President Cyrl Ramaphosa to call a fresh poll within 90 days of the directive being issued.
Both the IEC and the presidency have given notice of their intention to oppose the application and have filed initial affidavits, with the MK party set to file its responding papers by 19 November.
In a letter to the electoral court on Tuesday, MK party lawyer Barnabas Xulu asked for an extension until 29 November to consult Mhlongo, whose input was essential in dealing with the “technical and voluminous” IEC response.
Xulu said they had been told that Mhlongo had been “inundated with hostile and confrontational interactions on social media” and had received a number of death threats that he had reported to the police.
Mhlongo was also ”undergoing disciplinary action at the Moses Kotane Research
Institute as a result of him producing the expert report in this matter”, which had been set down for two days from 20 November.
“We are advised that he is unable to consult in this matter until after 21 November 2024. We accordingly request a further extension to file the applicants replying papers by
29 November 2024,” Xulu said in the letter.
Mhlongo was charged with five counts of gross misconduct by the institute late last month, one of which relates to his failure to inform it of his involvement in 13 active companies when he signed a financial disclosure last June.
According to the charge sheet, Mhlongo again failed to disclose the company directorships when he updated the disclosure register this year, acting in bad faith and violating his employment contract, the codes of ethics and conduct for the public service and other public service regulations.
A second charge relates to his failure to declare his participation in the MK court challenge.
“It is alleged that during or about the month of June to October 2024, you participated,
took part, assisted, helped, rendered advise or opinion, consulted with, involved yourself
in the activities of the political party, the MK Party, in their challenges of the general
elections,” the charge sheet reads.
“You failed to declare that you worked as a consultant and/or expert for the aforementioned political party and you as the employee failed to make this material disclosure on work outside the public service.”
This amounted to “gross misconduct, gross negligence and or gross dishonesty”, as did his being quoted in the media as an MK expert while being a full time employee of the institute.
Mhlongo is also charged with failing to promote or protect the image and interests of the institute by providing the expert opinion for the party, which the charge sheet described as a “serious breach or repudiation of your fixed term contract”.
“In terms of the Code of Conduct for Public Servants you are not allowed to abuse
your position in the public service to promote or prejudice the interest of any political party
or group and you are supposed to refrain from political activities in the workplace,” it said.
Mhlongo faces an additional charge of gross misconduct for compiling the report for the MK party to present in court in which “you expressed your personal political or IT expert views about the general elections that you provided to the MK party which were not the views of the employer”.
These views had also been documented in the media and formed part of public documents, creating the impression that the institute or its management was “affiliated to a political party by virtue of your employment”.
Mhlongo has also been charged over media interviews in which he was described as a MK party expert and identified as a manager with the institute and which was published without the permission of its chief executive.
According to the charge sheet, the article “refers to services rendered by you, in conflict between your employment duties and/or the mandate of the institute” and “exposes the institute to politics”.
It says Mhlongo should have known that his actions would negatively affect the institute and would have brought it into disrepute and that “you supporting one political party was going to be detrimental to the reputation and good of the employer, as an organisation whose mandate is to act independently, impartially, professionally and without fear or favour”.
Mhlongo’s report has enabled the MK party to bring its challenge to the election results back to court after it had withdrawn its initial action because of its inability to provide proof of irregularities at the time.
The party took nearly 14% of the vote nationally and 43% in KwaZulu-Natal in the May elections, but claims that it has been robbed of a two-thirds majority through manipulation of the IEC’s results collation and publication system.
Mhlongo’s report aims to prove that there were material errors in the results, which were significant enough to sway the eventual outcome and thus rendered the declaration of the elections as free and fair invalid.