South Africa's African National Congress expels ex-President Zuma

Former President Jacob Zuma looks on at the Results Operation Centre in Midrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, June 1, 2024.  [AP photo]

Former South African President Jacob Zuma has been expelled from his longtime political home, the African National Congress, after throwing his support behind a rival political party and campaigning for it ahead of May's game-changing elections.

Zuma was a member of the African National Congress, or ANC, for 65 years.

The octogenarian politician joined the anti-apartheid movement as a young man in 1959. Like fellow ANC stalwart Nelson Mandela, he was jailed on Robben Island for his part in the fight against white minority rule.

Also like Mandela, Zuma went on to serve as president after the advent of South Africa's democracy.

But his association with the storied movement saw an ignoble end on Monday.

"Jacob Zuma has actively impugned the integrity of the ANC and campaigned to dislodge the ANC from power," ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula said, explaining the party's decision to expel Zuma.

Zuma, 82, was forced to resign in disgrace near the end of his second term as president in 2018 amid numerous corruption scandals. He is widely accused of enabling what is known in South Africa as "State Capture" — basically the handing over of state-owned enterprises and even some ministries to his businessmen friends. He denies wrongdoing.

Bitter at the ANC, Zuma threw his weight behind the newly-formed uMkhonto weSizwe, or MK party, in December 2023. Despite his suspension from the party, he remained a member of the ANC while acting as the public face and leader of the populist MK party.

While Zuma himself was barred from running for office due to a prior criminal conviction, he campaigned for MK using vicious rhetoric against his successor, President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Despite the corruption allegations against him, Zuma has retained massive support in his home province of Kwa Zulu-Natal. MK did very well there in May 29 elections, which saw it become the third biggest party in South Africa with almost 15 percent of the vote.

Despite MK’s success, Zuma rejected the results, falsely claiming voting irregularities without any evidence. Mbalula also referenced this when announcing the expulsion.

"Furthermore, former President Zuma has been running on a dangerous platform that casts doubt on our entire constitutional edifice,” Mbalula said. “He has meted out a host of anti-revolutionary outbursts, including mischievously calling into question the credibility of our electoral processes without cause.”

Official election results saw the ANC lose its parliamentary majority for the first time since the start of democracy in 1994, forcing it to form a coalition in order to govern. MK is now the official opposition in parliament, led by a Zuma-aligned disgraced former judge.

Professor David Everatt of Johannesburg's Witwatersrand School of Governance said he was surprised it took the ANC so long to expel Zuma.

"It shows very clearly that the balance of forces has swung very clearly against Jacob Zuma and he doesn't have the support inside the ANC to try and defend himself," Everatt said.

But political analyst Sandile Swana noted that the ANC had protected Zuma for years.

"All of them have supported Jacob Zuma in one form or another and tolerated the decay in the ANC, so Zuma is one of the stars of the decay and demise of the African National Congress, that is his legacy," Swana said.

Zuma is due in court next year to face corruption charges over a 1999 arms deal.