The African National Congress suspends former president Jacob Zuma

South Africa's ruling party, the African National Congress, expelled Jacob Zuma from the party on Monday, punishing the former president for campaigning for a rival political party.

The party announced it had suspended Mr Zuma's membership after he helped form a rival party of which he has become the “figurehead”, the party's leadership said. The announcement followed a meeting of the National Executive Committee.

It was not immediately clear whether Mr Zuma would be allowed to challenge his suspension or face an internal disciplinary process. The party described him as “erratic” and “disruptive” and said it wanted to “limit its losses.”

The suspension of the country's former president and the party is a notable rebuke from party leaders who have spent years defending Zuma against allegations of corruption and wrongdoing, even as his tenure has eroded public support for the party. In the aftermath of his presidency, Zuma continued to sow political chaos, dodging responsibility and undermining the party's current leadership through testy public statements.

The decision to take disciplinary action against Mr Zuma, who became a symbol of widespread corruption and impunity, signals a break with this corrosive legacy and a show of force by President Cyril Ramaphosa as he seeks re-election.

“Rebel groups” were trying to undermine the African National Congress, said Fikile Mbalula, the party's secretary general. Although he said the party would renew itself because the party leadership was now taking responsibility for the failures during Mr Zuma's tenure.

As the face of a party that has sought to position itself more radical and populist on issues such as land redistribution, Mr Zuma was also responsible for derailing South Africa's progress since the end of apartheid, he added to it.

“As the renewal gathers pace, Zuma and others whose behavior is contrary to its values ​​and principles will find themselves outside the African National Congress,” Mr Mbalula said in a public briefing.

Still, analysts say it will be difficult in the minds of many voters to dislodge the party from Mr Zuma. As he supported an opposition party in recent weeks, some members of the ANC leadership tried to convince Mr Zuma, 81, to return to the fold, an indication of the power he still holds.

The political rise of Mr Zuma, a former anti-apartheid activist who was jailed for his role in the ANC, represented what critics saw as the collapse of Nelson Mandela's party. Yet Mr Zuma remains a popular figure in South Africa, able to lead large crowds who see him as an antidote to elitism within the ANC. Mr Zuma led the country for about a decade before stepping down as party leader in 2017 and the following year as president.

With key national elections just months away, Mr Zuma's removal from the party would also signal the breakdown of the political relationship between Mr Zuma and the party's current leadership under President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Last year, Mr Zuma announced that he would not vote for the ANC in the upcoming elections, but would instead side with a newly formed opposition party.

“My conscience does not allow me to lie to the people of South Africa,” Mr Zuma said in a statement read by his daughter Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla.

But even as he has branded Ramaphosa's government a “sell-out”, he has vowed never to leave the ANC and has publicly insisted he would remain a member. He said his decision to campaign for another party was intended to punish leaders who “mishandled” the party.

Mr Zuma chose to make the statement at the official launch of this new opposition party in December. The new political corps bears the name of the ANC's armed wing, the uMkhonto we Sizwe, meaning the Spear of the Nation. The party's colours, green, white and gold, reflect those of the ANC. The new party has ignored calls from the 112-year-old liberation movement to change its name. The ANC said it planned to challenge the name and brand of the new party in the electoral tribunal.

Convicted of defying a court order to testify before a national corruption inquiry in 2021, Mr Zuma is legally ineligible to run for president. Although he is not the official leader of the new party, he is its most recognizable champion. Mr Zuma has campaigned vigorously for the new party, especially in his traditional stronghold in KwaZulu-Natal province, dismissing questions about his ill health.

In 2021, after serving just two months in prison, Mr Zuma was released from prison on parole after his doctors claimed he was terminally ill and could not complete his 15-month sentence. A wave of protests following his incarceration led to some of the the deadliest riots in South Africa since the end of apartheid.

A judge overturned his medical parole. But Mr Zuma only had to return to prison for less than two hours as he was released under a parole program that critics say was implemented by the ANC government to protect the former leader from legal consequences.

Earlier this year, Mr Mbalula admitted leaders had lied to Mr Zuma when an independent watchdog discovered he had used state money to upgrade his complex in KwaZulu-Natal.

Even by suspending him, the party was slow to act against Mr Zuma, said Mashupye Maserumule, a professor of public affairs at the Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria.

“Zuma is a creation of the ANC,” said Professor Maserumule. Many of the party's current leaders were at the “front of protecting him” and did not want him expelled from the party, he added.

For some in the party, this is a “clean-up moment,” said one member who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.