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South Africa's former president Jacob Zuma at a press conference in December 2023

Photo: Shiraaz Mohamed / REUTERS

Former South African President Jacob Zuma has been expelled from the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party. "Zuma and others whose behavior contradicts our values ​​and principles will find themselves outside the African National Congress," said ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula. The ANC will also take legal action against the left-wing small party Umkhonto We Sizwe (MK), which is supported by Zuma.

MK was only registered as a party last year. The party is named after the former armed wing of the ANC. Mbalula announced that he would seek to have the party deregistered from the electoral court through a trademark lawsuit. The founding of the party was "not an accident," said Mbalula, but a "conscious attempt to use the proud history of the armed struggle against the apartheid regime to give credibility to a blatantly counter-revolutionary agenda."

Increasing fragmentation of the ANC

The decision to expel Zuma from the party had been long awaited. It is seen as a further sign of increasing fragmentation in the ANC ahead of the upcoming general election this year. The ANC, which played a significant role in the decades-long struggle against apartheid, is currently losing support among the South African population.

Zuma, who left office amid allegations of corruption, said in December he would not vote for the party he led for many years in the 2024 general election. Instead, he will vote for the newly founded MK party and not campaign for the ANC.

Zuma was President of South Africa from 2009 to 2018. Party leader and President Cyril Ramaphosa was his deputy at the time and took over the office after Zuma's resignation. Despite the corruption allegations and other controversies, Zuma still has influence in the ANC.

In 2021, Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in prison after refusing to testify before a panel investigating financial corruption and nepotism under his presidency. His detention led to protests, riots and looting in which more than 350 people were killed.

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