Zuma not welcome at ANC activities
• Party expected to formally bar its former president over MK support
The ANC is expected to formally bar former president Jacob Zuma from party activities, including its national executive committee (NEC) meeting.
The sanction is part of disciplinary measures against the party’s former president for openly campaigning for the newly formed political party, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), of which he is the central figure.
Zuma, a member of the ANC for more than six decades, has led numerous rallies for the newly formed MK since its launch in December 2023.
This has angered senior members of the ANC, some of whom have insisted that Zuma is no longer a member of the party. There has been no formal pronouncement from the ANC, in line with its rules.
Zuma’s decision to renounce the ANC and openly campaign for MK, while insisting he remains a member of the ANC, is expected to feature high on the agenda at the two-day NEC meeting this weekend.
As a former president, Zuma is an ex-officio member of the NEC, the party’s highest decision making structure between conferences. But according to the rules, his 15-month jail sentence, for which he was granted a special remission in August 2023, as well as the trial he is facing for fraud and racketeering alongside French arms company Thales, prohibits him from participating in NEC meetings.
“He [Zuma] is not invited ... remember when he was sent to jail ... obviously he could not participate in NEC meetings because it would’ve been a violation of the ANC’s constitution,” ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri said.
“He has now taken the route that he has taken and surely he can’t be invited into the ANC’s NEC meeting. He can’t arrive tomorrow.”
The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal announced on Wednesday that it is in the process of suspending three councillors in eThekwini for defecting to MK.
This is in line with a resolution of the party’s provincial executive to suspend members who participate in the activities of other political parties.
The ANC faces a major challenge in the province in the upcoming election. KwaZuluNatal has been an ANC stronghold since the party won governance of the province in 2004 when Zuma was the deputy president of SA and the ANC. But its electoral fortunes in there have steadily decreased from a high of 64.52% in 2014 to 54.22% in 2019.
A report by think-tank the Social Research Foundation found that Zuma is the most favoured political figure among 63.1% of all registered voters in KwaZulu-Natal. The research, which was conducted in October 2023 and released this month, also found “Zuma’s new political venture might at best
shave just a few political points off the ANC’s support base”.
It went on to say: “Favourability does not easily translate into electoral support in the absence of an extremely strong party infrastructure.”
The KwaZulu-Natal data is based on a survey of 2,432 geographically and demographically representative registered voters commissioned by the foundation in September 2023. That survey had a provincial margin of error of 3%.
The ANC’s provincial secretary, Bheki Mtolo, said Zuma had “voluntarily terminated” his ANC membership by joining MK.
“Members of the ANC who associate and participate actively in activities of other political parties that contest elections against the ANC are presumed as having left the ANC and voluntarily terminated their membership.”
The sentiment is shared by ANC chair Gwede Mantashe, who was once seen as a close ally during Zuma’s term as president. Mantashe told 702’s Clement Manyathela on Monday that Zuma, as a former senior member of the party, is well aware of party rules and that by campaigning for MK, the former president had expelled himself.
“He knows he cannot be a member of the ANC and vote, campaign for something else.”
Mantashe, however, conceded that disciplining Zuma would likely negatively affect the ANC in this year’s elections.
“When people ask me for advice on this issue, I say: ‘let us focus on the work of the ANC. If you put life into that [Zuma disciplinary], it can derail you from the campaign of the ANC’.”
Political analyst Ntsikelelo Breakfast said: “There’s no party that will allow its members to wear two hats ...
“Zuma should be charged because if the ANC doesn’t charge him, it would open a loophole for other members.”