The African National Congress (ANC) has suspended former South African President Jacob Zuma, a decision that highlights the growing divisions in the governing party ahead of national elections.
The 81-year-old previously served as the country's leader from 2009 to 2018 and was forced to step down by the ANC to make way for Cyril Ramaphosa. Zuma's presidency was hounded by a series of corruption allegations and poor growth in Africa's most industrialized economy.
Zuma launched his own political movement last month which is known as uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) after the ANC's former military wing. He argued that there had been a "failure of leadership" in the governing party." He noted that he cannot and will not campaign for the ANC of Ramaphosa.
The ANC secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, said that the former president was "actively impugning the integrity of the ANC" with his campaigning to unseat the party. He added that the ANC's decision to suspend the former president, who is a former head of intelligence, was unanimous, as per the Financial Times.
Mbalula added that the formation of the MK party was not an accident, arguing that it was a deliberate attempt to use the proud history of armed struggle against the apartheid regime. He added that it was an attempt to lend credibility to what he considered a blatant counter-revolutionary agenda.
On Monday, Mbalula sent a three-page letter to Zuma, where he said that he was being suspended immediately. However, the decision was on a temporary basis and made for a number of infractions of the party's constitution.
These included acting in a way that could "provoke division" within the party, bringing the ANC into disrepute, and campaigning for a party that it had not endorsed. A political analyst, Richard Calland, said that the former president launched the MK party as an attempt to weaken Ramaphosa's efforts to reform the ANC.
On top of the suspension of Zuma, Mbalula said that the ANC could complain to the electoral court to get the new MK party deregistered and mount a trademark challenge to recapture the name, according to Aljazeera.
South Africa's Political Divisions
However, a longtime ANC activist on the local level, Vincent Mthembu, said that Zuma was the only hope for the party. He said that he was the "people's president," adding that whatever he was doing was enriching Black people.
Mthembu, who is among those who could not resist supporting Zuma, quit the ANC after a news conference last month that revealed the former president would not vote for the party. He added that the governing party is no longer what it once was, pointing to what he saw as a double standard.
He argued that when Zuma and his allies are accused of corruption, the ANC punishes them, but this is not something that the party does to the current president and his allies. When Zuma announced the MK party, he gave hope to South Africans who had become disenchanted with the current political system.
The ANC currently holds majorities in the legislatures of the two most populous provinces in the region, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. However, political analysts see both as tossups in this year's elections, said the New York Times.
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