Former ANC leader and ex-South African President Jacob Zuma has been expelled from Nelson Mandela's party for leading a rival movement in May's elections, the party's secretary-general announced today.
"This conduct is irreconcilable with the spirit of organizational discipline and the letter of the ANC Constitution," Mbalula told reporters.
"The political values and democratic institutions against which it mobilized were consciously incorporated into our constitutional provision by the ANC as strategic advancements of the values of the National Democratic Revolution," said the secretary-general of the former South African liberation movement.
The ANC's disciplinary committee condemned Zuma for "undermining the integrity of the party" by leading the creation of the opposition party, uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), which emerged as the third-largest political force in the May 29 elections.
Zuma’s suspension from the ANC follows a virtual disciplinary hearing held on Tuesday last week.
Zuma now has 21 days to appeal the ANC’s decision.
The uMkhonto we Sizwe party announced through a spokesperson that its leader Jacob Zuma intends to appeal the ANC’s decision.
In January, the African National Congress (ANC, South Africa’s ruling party) suspended the former leader, who has been mired in corruption scandals, a month after he formed an alliance with the newly formed uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party.
Zuma, who joined the ANC in the late 1950s, has been accused of violating the constitution of Mandela’s party.
MK won a share of the ANC’s electorate in the May 29 election, coming in third with 14.5% of the vote.
The ANC lost its absolute majority, obtaining 40.18%, its lowest result in the last three decades.
Elected President of South Africa in 2009, Zuma was removed from power in 2018 due to corruption scandals and was replaced by Cyril Ramaphosa, a long-time rival.
In the May elections, MK won 58 of the 400 seats in the National Assembly.
