JOHANNESBURG
Former South African President Jacob Zuma has been expelled from the African National Congress (ANC) party, where he had been a member for many decades, public broadcaster SABC reported Sunday.
Zuma, 82, who has been an ANC party member for 60 years, was found guilty of founding and campaigning for the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, which obtained 58 seats in parliamentary elections in May, it said.
The broadcaster said it was in possession of documents confirming Zuma’s expulsion. The ANC has, however, not yet issued a statement regarding the expulsion.
The report said the ANC’s National Disciplinary Committee found Zuma guilty of prejudicing the integrity of the party by acting in collaboration with uMkhonto weSizwe in a manner contrary to the aims, policies and objectives of the ANC.
Zuma, who governed the country as president for nearly a decade, was also the former president of the ANC, which ruled South Africa since 1994 without a coalition.
The ANC, which liberated South Africans from white minority rule and racial segregation, used to secure more than 60% in all elections since 1994, barring 2019, when its parliamentary share dipped to 57.5%. But it lost its parliamentary majority in the May elections, getting 40% of the vote and receiving 159 seats of the 400-seat parliament. The party had to reach coalition deals with nine other political parties to form a government of national unity.
In January, the ANC suspended Zuma, in what experts described as a sign of a growing rift between him and current President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Zuma now has 21 days to appeal the judgment with the ANC’s National Committee of Appeal.
