JOHANNESBURG: South Africa’s ruling ANC on Monday expelled its former leader ex-president Jacob Zuma for leading a rival party into elections following disciplinary proceedings. The African National Congress, which lost its absolute parliamentary majority for the first time in May largely due to Zuma’s defection, said the veteran politician’s conduct was “irreconcilable” with its constitution.

“Former President Jacob Zuma has actively impugned the integrity of the ANC and campaigned to dislodge the ANC from power while claiming that he had not yet severed his membership,” ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula told a press conference. He was thus “expelled” from the party, Mbalula said.

The ANC first suspended the scandal-tainted ex-leader in January, after he endorsed the newly formed uMkhonto weSizwe (MK). MK cut into the ANC’s share of votes in the May 29 elections, taking third place with 14.5 percent.

The ANC managed 40 percent in the May vote — its weakest score since it came to power three decades ago to replace the apartheid government. The result forced it to form a coalition government with nine other parties. MK was left out and is leading the opposition, with 58 lawmakers in the 400-seat National Assembly.

MK, a populist, radical leftist party, initially disputed the election result. “His platform is dangerous, appeals to extremist instincts in our body politic and riles up a political base that may foment social unrest,” Mbalula said of Zuma’s MK.

Zuma has been barred from serving as an MP because of a 2021 conviction for contempt of court. After news of his upcoming expulsion was leaked, the party lashed out at the “grave injustices against its leader”. “An examination of the leaked document reveals that the disciplinary process was not only not only profoundly flawed but also conducted in a manner akin to a kangaroo court,” said MK spokesman Nhlamulo Ndhlela.

Zuma will engage legal counsel to determine the course of action, he said. The former president has 21 days to appeal the decision. Zuma joined the ANC via its youth league as a teenager in 1959. Elected South African president in 2009, he was forced from office in 2018 under the cloud of corruption allegations and was replaced by long-term rival, President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The charismatic and outspoken 82-year-old still carries considerable political clout in South Africa, even enjoying support within some factions of the ANC. Many believed his political career would end when he was sentenced to 15 months in jail in June 2021 after refusing to testify to a panel probing financial corruption and cronyism under his presidency.

His imprisonment triggered riots that sparked South Africa’s worst episode of violence since the fall of apartheid, leaving more than 350 dead. He spent only two months behind bars and was released for health reasons, after which Ramaphosa commuted his sentence. — AFP