‘By 2029 we might be battling to put together 20-party coalitions’: Zille on Mogoeng’s new party

DA federal council chairperson Helen Zille has weighed in on the launch of the All African Alliance Movement’s election campaign. 

The movement will contest the 2024 elections and endorsed former chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng as its presidential candidate.

Zille claimed the party was further fracturing the political landscape, and suggested with the amount of political parties in the ring, it may be a battle to put together a 20-party coalition in the future.

“By 2029 we might be battling to put together 20-party coalitions and wondering why South Africa is ungovernable,” said Zille.

Speaking at its election campaign launch, All African Alliance Movement secretary-general Bishop Meschak Tebe told eNCA the movement had done its groundwork, research and engaged with various communities.

“People are saying they are tired and we see the levels of poverty in the country. The government is not addressing that. They keep promising and promising. 

“In terms of the numbers, we are swelling every day. You will see that the minute we launch a full-scale campaign. In terms of the elections, you will begin to see what you have never seen before. The last time you saw what we are going to see was in 1994.”

Mogoeng has yet to publicly confirm if he will accept the nomination to run for president.

Tebe said Mogoeng will make a public announcement once he is done fasting and praying.

“The [former] chief justice is serving in the judicial system so he's working out his programmes. Above everything else, it is his commitment to be a praying person. He has been praying and will make a proper announcement himself once he is done,” Tebe told Newzroom Afrika.

According to the Judicial Service Commission Act, a retired judge “must not enter party politics”. This means Mogoeng may be in breach of the act if he enters politics.

“A retired judge must not sit as a director of a public company. A retired judge must not become a member or professional partnership or body corporate. A retired judge must not enter party politics,” the act reads. 

Despite his retirement, Mogoeng remains bound by some provisions of the act, which states “all activities of a judge no longer on active service must be compatible with his or her status as a retired judge”. 

A retired judge is also expected not to do anything that would bring the judiciary into disrepute.

“A judge discharged from active service must not be involved in any undertaking, business, fundraising, or other activity that is incompatible with the status of a judge.”

The act also states that “a judge who has been discharged from active service may only with the written consent of the minister, acting after consultation with the chief justice, hold or perform any other office of profit or receive in respect of any service any fees, emoluments or other remuneration or allowances apart from his or her salary and any other amount which may be payable to him or her in his or her capacity as judge”. 

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