Expelled Jacob Zuma on a mission to 'rescue' ANC from 'sell-outs'

UMKHONTO weSizwe (MK) Party leader Jacob Zuma believes he can  "rescue" the ANC from its current leadership under President Cyril Ramaphosa. 

Zuma hauled  Ramaphosa and his former party to court on Thursday in a bid to challenge his expulsion from the party. 

His decision to take the ANC and its leader to court came after the party's disciplinary committee expelled him in July 2024 for publicly endorsing the MK Party ahead of the general elections.

He argued that the disciplinary steps that the ANC followed in 2024 were illegal and violated his constitutional rights.  

 In a podcast, Zuma stated that he wanted to stay within the ANC to change it from within, claiming that the current leadership had strayed from the principles of the party's founders.

"If I was not a member of that organisation [ANC] it would be very difficult to try to change it from the inside. They would ask what I wanted from their organisation when I was not a member…and that would be the end of the debate," Zuma said.

Zuma's court application  seeks to set aside the ANC's decision to terminate his 65-year-long membership. 

MKP spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela has labeled the ANC's disciplinary hearing as a "kangaroo court" and accused the party of "betraying the people by entering into a Government of National Unity (GNU) with the DA and Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus)".

“President Zuma is on record saying that his membership of the real ANC of Luthuli, Tambo and Mandela cannot be erased by sell-outs and DA puppets like Ramaphosa and Mbalula (ANC secretary-general). 

“It was indeed the sell-out tendencies of these traitors which led to the formation of the MK Party on 16 December 2023 and the removal of the ANC from power 5 months later in the May 2024 elections,” Ndhlela said.

Ndhlela further said his party was fully behind Zuma and would hopefully see his dual membership of the MK Party and the real ANC, not the “sell-out ANC of Ramaphosa”, restored. 

“Such an outcome will bring us closer to the much-needed unity of black people in the centuries old struggle for total liberation and the return of the land to its rightful owners, the African people as a whole,” Ndhlela said.

ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu did not respond to a request for comment, however, Mbalula had previously labelled Zuma’s attempts to challenge his dismissal from the party as mischief. 

“He (Zuma) is a mischievous, uncouth, ridiculous old man who basically thrives on disunity for his own self-interest,” Mbalula had said.

Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya had also not responded to questions.

Political analyst Professor Siphamandla Zondi from the University of Johannesburg believes that Zuma's fight with the ANC was premised on the view that the current faction within the party was different from the one he had led.

"Zuma assumes that the current faction is linked to White Monopoly Capital or the liberal right…He thinks that it needs to be responded to and when he failed in two conferences to defeat the faction, he ended up forming the MKP," Zondi said.

Another analyst, Sandile Swana, believes that Zuma's objective was to acquire the ANC and revamp its operations.

"Zuma's recent demand to be reinstated is merely a strategic move in his larger scheme to take over the party," Swana said.

Cape Times