JOHANNESBURG -- South Africa's former president Jacob Zuma has survived a road crash Thursday night, local media reported Friday.

Zuma and his bodyguards were traveling from Nkandla to Eshowe, in KwaZulu-Natal Province, to campaign for the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party when the crash happened, and it is not clear whether Zuma and his bodyguards have been injured or not, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) said in a report.

"The MK Party claims that there is foul play in the road crash that the former president Jacob Zuma and his bodyguards were involved in," the SABC report said.

"What happened last night I must say that unfortunately, we have been waiting for it to happen, and it has happened because the president was warned that he will be laying in hospital," Musa Mkhize, the party's head of elections in the province, told the SABC. "We don't know what more is still coming."

The Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa, the country's election management body, said Thursday that it has upheld an objection against Zuma's candidacy in the upcoming elections.

Zuma, who was sentenced to 15 months in prison for contempt of court in 2021, was nominated as a candidate for the elections by the MK Party.