The African National Congress (ANC), South Africa’s ruling party, has summoned former president Jacob Zuma to a disciplinary hearing next Tuesday for violating party rules, the National Disciplinary Committee (NDC) announced on Thursday ).
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“Mr. Zuma is accused of breaching the ANC charter when he publicly supported the new party “uMkhonto we Sizwe” (MK) on December 16, 2023 and when he appeared on the MK party’s list of candidates. declared the Committee in an opinion published in a tense context on the eve of the general elections of May 29.
In December 2023, Mr Zuma created his own party named after the former military wing of the African National Congress, calling on South Africans not to vote for the ANC in the next general election. Following this development, the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ANC decided to suspend the membership of the ex-president and put him through disciplinary proceedings.
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The party’s secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, stressed that Mr Zuma actively challenges the integrity of the ANC and is campaigning to dislodge it from power, while maintaining that he has not ended his membership. “This conduct is irreconcilable with the spirit of organizational discipline and the charter of the ANC,” he said.
To counter the Zuma threat on the eve of a decisive election, the ANC used the courts to, firstly, oppose the registration of the new party and, secondly, to demand the change of the name and logo of “Umkhonto We Sizwe”, which is the name of the armed wing of the ANC during the apartheid era.
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The ruling party also tried, through the Electoral Commission, to disqualify the ex-president from running as a candidate following his sentence to 15 months in prison for contempt of court in 2021. But Zuma was able, until present, win all these appeals before the courts.
By Le360 Africa (with MAP)
05/04/2024 at 8:42 a.m.
