By Abiola Olawale
South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC) on Monday announced the expulsion of former President Jacob Zuma.
The party’s Secretary General Fikile Mbalula, who addressed a press conference, said the Zuma was expelled for allegedly leading a rival party into the last elections in South Africa.
Mbalula stated that the ANC’s disciplinary committee found Zuma guilty of “prejudicing the integrity” of the party by joining a newly inaugurated political party, uMkhonto weSizwe (MK).
He said: “Former President Jacob Zuma has actively impugned the integrity of the ANC and campaigned to dislodge the ANC from power while claiming that he had not yet severed his membership,”
He was thus “expelled” from the party, Mbalula said.
It would be recalled that the former president had been suspended in January after endorsing uMkhonto weSizwe (MK).
The action would later cost the ANC a fortune as the party lost its absolute parliamentary majority in May. MK was able to garner several votes from the ANC’s stronghold in the May 29 elections, taking third place with 14.5 per cent.
The ANC managed 40per cent in the May vote, the party’s weakest score since it came to power three decades ago to replace the apartheid government.
The result forced it to form a coalition government with nine other parties. MK was left out and is leading the opposition, with 58 lawmakers in the 400-seat National Assembly.
The New Diplomat reports that Zuma joined the ANC via its youth league as a teenager in 1959.
Elected South African president in 2009, he resigned from office in 2018 under the cloud of corruption allegations and was replaced by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
