South Africa’s ruling ANC is divided over its response to Zuma

JOHANNESBURG — The announcement by former South African president Jacob Zuma that he will not vote for the ruling African National Congress in next year’s elections has sparked disagreements within the party’s leadership over how to limit the impact of his move.

The ex-president, who on Saturday held a press conference in Soweto to announce the withdrawal of his backing for the ANC, also declared his support for the newly-formed Umkhonto we Sizwe party, which is named after the ANC’s now-defunct military wing. However, he remains a member of the ANC.

Semafor Africa spoke to four senior ANC officials who sought differing approaches. Some said they may call for his expulsion whereas others called for caution.

“Zuma has flouted party rules and the constitution by working against the ANC and announcing he would campaign for another party,” a party leader told Semafor Africa, speaking on condition of anonymity. “He has defined himself outside the party and should therefore be taken through a disciplinary action and be expelled.”

But another senior ANC figure, pointing to a different view, said Zuma had overestimated his popularity. “Ignoring him is a better strategy than expelling from the party, as action against him would make him a victim and he would exploit that,” the person said.

The former president was sentenced to 15 months in prison in 2021 after refusing to testify during a financial corruption investigation but was freed on medical parole after two months.

In his statement on Saturday, Zuma said the ANC, which was born out of the fight to end minority white rule of the apartheid era, was “one of the great liberations movements of our time”, but is “not the once great movement that we loved and were prepared to lay down our lives for.”

Zuma said the party had changed into an organization “we no longer recognise” that was expected to lose next year’s presidential and municipal elections after being the victim of a “deliberate plot to kill the ANC.”

This article was originally published in Semafor.