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Former South African President Jacob Zuma has been expelled from the African National Congress (ANC) for his involvement in leading a rival party during the country’s recent elections, as reported by state broadcaster SABC on Sunday.
Last year, Zuma departed from the ANC, a party that supported him through two presidential elections, to join the newly established uMkhonto weSizwe party (MK). He accused the ANC, Africa’s oldest liberation movement, of contributing to the downfall of “democratically elected structures” in the nation and predicted it would lose the national election for the first time since apartheid ended.
Zuma assumed the South African presidency in 2009, but his tenure was marred by corruption scandals, which he has consistently denied responsibility for. These controversies eventually led to his resignation in 2018 during his second term.
In April, Zuma was elected as the leader of the MK party. However, he was disqualified from running for a seat in the National Assembly in the May election due to a prior conviction.
On July 17, the ANC initiated disciplinary proceedings against the 82-year-old, following his suspension in January for breaching party rules by campaigning for MK while still an ANC member. The ANC’s disciplinary committee found Zuma guilty of “prejudicing the integrity” of the party by joining MK, according to a leaked ANC document cited by SABC. Zuma has three weeks to appeal the decision.
The MK party responded in a statement on Monday, asserting that Zuma had not been formally notified of the ruling.
“An examination of the leaked document reveals that the disciplinary process was not only profoundly flawed but also conducted in a manner akin to a kangaroo court,”
the statement read.
“This leak is not an isolated incident but the climax of a series of repressive actions that disturbingly echo tactics once used during apartheid—an era from which the current ANC leadership under Ramaphosa and its coalition partners, the DA [Democratic Alliance – South Africa’s largest opposition party], seem to have drawn inspiration.”
The ANC has not yet officially confirmed Zuma’s expulsion.
In the recent elections, the ANC, which has governed South Africa since the end of apartheid, lost its majority for the first time, securing only 159 seats in the 400-member National Assembly, down from 230 in the previous term. The MK party won 58 seats, placing third behind the Democratic Alliance, which secured 87 seats.
Cyril Ramaphosa, who succeeded Zuma in 2018, was recently re-elected as South Africa’s president by the National Assembly through a coalition agreement with the center-right white-led DA and smaller parties.
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