Disciplinary proceedings
South Africa’s ANC withdraws former President Zuma’s membership
Zuma had founded his own party. Photo
© Themba Hadebe/AP/dpa
He was once ANC chairman and president of South Africa. Jacob Zuma recently went his own way. He was expelled from his old party.
In the parliamentary elections in May, Zuma’s uMkhonto we Sizwe party (MK), which was only founded in December 2023, received 14 percent of the vote. The ANC, on the other hand, suffered a massive electoral loss with around 40 percent – it lost about 17 percentage points since the previous vote in 2019.
This meant that for the first time in 30 years the ANC could no longer form a government on its own and had to form a coalition. Political commentators attribute the ANC’s historic loss of power to the re-establishment of the MK, among other things.
The new party is “dangerous and appeals to extremists,” said ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula, explaining the committee’s decision to expel Zuma from the ruling party. The MK has the potential to destabilize the political situation in South Africa, the Secretary General continued.
Zuma was a member of the ANC for decades and was South Africa’s president from 2009 to 2018. He had to give up office due to serious corruption allegations. In 2021, Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in prison. His imprisonment sparked serious unrest in which 350 people died and hundreds of shops were looted and set on fire. Zuma has since been considered a powerful politician who, according to critics, does not shy away from using violence to achieve his political goals.