by TINTSWALO BALOYI
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – THE expulsion of Jacob Zuma from the African National Congress (ANC) is an acrimonious end to a 65-year-old relationship.
Yet, with the former president of the oldest liberation movement of the continent and South Africa, aggrieved by the decision, his battle with the party could be far from over.
It is the latest twist in a nasty public row between Zuma (82) and the ANC. It has raged from 2018 when his factionalised party forced him to resign as state president in 2018 after a series of controversies.
His then deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa, took over and since, these two most powerful politicians in the country have never seen eye to eye.
It was exacerbated at the end of 2023 when Zuma dropped a bombshell!
He would not be campaigning for or voting for the then ruling ANC party in the May 2024 elections. Instead, he backed the newly-formed uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), a breakaway opposition from the ANCE. It later emerged he formed the party, and is now its president.
It was folly for the ANC to initially underestimate the man who joined the liberation movement in 1959 (aged 17).
By the time ANC started instituting disciplinary proceedings against Zuma for de-campaigning the party, it was too little too late. The ANC would go on to lose a parliamentary majority it had enjoyed since the dawn of independence in 1994.
To expel or not to expel Zuma has been a dilemma.
Failure to expel Zuma, who claimed he remained a member of the ANC, would have been awkward. Besides that it would be against the ANC’s own constitution, MK is now officially the biggest opposition in Parliament after the Democratic Alliance (DA) joined the ANC in the coalition government running South Africa.
MK’s third finish in the elections after garnering over 14 percent of the election cost the ANC its majority, after it fell to 40 percent.
If it expelled Zuma, ANC reputation would suffer further damage, as a party beset by corruption allegations and infighting. A section of the ANC is still aligned to the expelled politician.
Eventually it opted for the latter and revealed that, for the first time in its 112-year history, it had fired a former president. Zuma led the ANC from 2007 to 2017.
“Former President Zuma has actively impugned the integrity of the ANC and campaigned to dislodge the ANC from power, while claiming he had not severed his membership,” Fikile Mbalula, ANC Secretary General, addressed the media.
Zuma has a right to appeal to the ANC National Disciplinary Committee (DC) within 21 days of expulsion.
There has been an immediate pushback from the Zuma camp, with a legal battle appearing a possibility.
MK alleged it learnt of Zuma’s expulsion by the “ANC Kangaroo Court” through media leaks, a day before the formal announcement.
It said Zuma had not been formally informed, which the opposition said was against the constitution of the ANC and the country.
This, it said, was an attempt by “the ANC of Ramaphosa” to undermine Zuma.
It also denounced the handling of the disciplinary hearing, which was held virtually and not in a physical format.
“Umkhonto weSizwe will not passively fold its arms as the grave injustices against its leader unfold,” MK stated.
The Jacob Zuma Foundation also queried the disciplinary exercise and resultant expulsion of the politician who is its patron.
“The Zuma Law is back, alive and well,” the foundation stated.
It is alleged there was no transparency in the ANC DC and he was denied an opportunity to be heard or mitigate sentence.
“Exactly the same as what Justice (Sisi) Khampepe did at the Constitutional Court,” the foundation added.
The court sentenced Zuma to 15 months imprisonment in 2021 after he failed to appear before a commission probing corruption said to have peaked during his presidency of the country from 2009.
His imprisonment led to days of anarchy that left more than 350 people dead.
Mbalula, meanwhile, said the ANC was undeterred by the route the Zuma camp would take.
“We will defend our actions to the end in relation to Zuma. We believe politically, morally and otherwise, we are on the right path,” Mbalula said.
Zuma is arguably the most divisive leader of the party and country.
The apartheid government jailed him for ten years for conspiring to overthrow the administration.
He served alongside Nelson Mandela, among other ANC stalwarts.
Zuma overcame that, rape and corruption allegations as well as lack of education to ascend to the presidency.
– CAJ News