The ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) on Monday suspended former president Jacob Zuma after he publicly endorsed the newly formed Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party, although he will remain a member of the party until after the elections, when a disciplinary committee will decide on the matter.
The party was expected to write to Zuma on Monday to notify him of his suspension. Zuma was suspended for contravening rule 25.60 of the party’s constitution, after he announced on December 16 that he would not campaign or vote for the ANC and would instead back the MK Party at this year’s elections.
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said Zuma was actively impugning the integrity of the ANC and campaigning to dislodge the ANC from power, while claiming that he has not terminated his membership.
He said it was unprecedented in the modern dispensation of the party for someone of Zuma’s stature to leave the party, saying even late IFP founder Mangosuthu Buthelezi had wanted to resolve the issue of his ANC membership.
“Pursuant to this, the NEC during its ordinary meeting held from January 26 to 29, 2024 resolved to invoke rule 25.60 of the ANC constitution: ‘If justifiable exceptional circumstances warrant an immediate decision of temporary suspension of a member without eliciting the comment or response of such member as contemplated above, the NEC, the NWC, the PEC or the PWC, as the case may be, may summarily suspend such member.’
“The NEC concluded that exceptional circumstances exist to justify and warrant an immediate decision to suspend former ANC president JG Zuma in line with rule 25.60 as stated above,” Mbalula said.
He said anti-transformation tactics encouraged rebel breakaway groupings to erode the support base of the ANC.
“Some of these parties masquerade as more radical than the ANC, but their revolutionary-sounding rhetoric cannot hide the reality that they have common cause with the forces opposing transformation. The shared goal of all these forces is to deprive the ANC of the ability to use state power to effect change.”
Mbalula said the formation of the MK Party was not an accident. “It is a deliberate attempt to use the proud history of armed struggle against the apartheid regime to lend credibility to what is a blatantly counter-revolutionary agenda.”
He said the ANC had tried many ways to reach out to Zuma but he “had closed the doors”.
MK Party spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndlela said the ANC was being disingenuous in saying these were anti-transformation tactics to encourage rebel breakaway groupings to erode the support base of the ANC.
“This party is informed from the fact that people need to be liberated and that they have no hope. It is the ANC that is counter-revolutionary because they want to form a coalition with the DA.”
Ndlela said that Zuma would respond once he receives communication in the form of a letter or a formal communique.
Political analyst Professor Sipho Seepe said the ANC was delaying Zuma’s disciplinary process as such a process would allow for his point of view to be aired.
“They are concerned that if the disciplinary committee sits now, then the former president will raise issues that he has previously raised, that this ANC and leadership is in violation of the party’s constitution.
“Zuma would have raised the issue of Phala Phala and the party’s step-aside policy and how the party used its majority in Parliament to bulldoze that matter aside. He would have raised the issue of the CR17 campaign funding and how that violates the party’s constitution but no action has been taken,” said Seepe.
Seepe said it was too risky for the ANC to subject Zuma to a disciplinary process before the elections and that they will wait for the outcome of the elections before starting the process.
Another analyst, Professor Ntsikelelo Breakfast, said Zuma’s suspension was not a surprise but the slow pace of responsiveness did not do the party any good.
“The ANC cannot say that it is taking action against certain members because they have walked out on the party but turned a blind eye to the former president. The ANC is still trying to be circumspect; it does not want to do everything at once, but the matter is out of the way for now.”
Breakfast said party discipline was important and the ANC had to act against duality in representing one party while campaigning for another.
The Mercury