uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) leader Jacob Zuma will pay a visit to Luthuli House on Tuesday. He is due to face the African National Congress’s (ANC) disciplinary committee over his involvement with the MKP.
The two-time ANC leader was suspended in January after he announced, a month earlier, that he would campaign and vote for the MKP in this month’s general election.
On Friday, Eyewitness News quoted the MKP’s spokesperson, Nhlamulo Ndhlela, as saying Zuma would remain an ANC member for life, but would not vote for the ANC of Cyril Ramaphosa.
“President Zuma stated he will die an ANC member and he will never vote for the ANC of President Cyril Ramaphosa because this ANC is not the ANC he knows and it’s very un-ANC. For the first time since 1912, the formation of the ANC, a leader buys himself into the presidency,” he said.
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Disciplinary committee hearing
Despite his shifting loyalty to a new party, Zuma will stand before the disciplinary committee next week.
“Whatever the outcomes thereof, he is at the ANC’s mercy in terms of how they want to deal with it but at this point in time, pending the outcome of the DC, there is nothing we can say. Let’s see what their position is and take it from there,” said Ndhlela.
Zuma was elected and served as president of the ANC from 2007 until 2017. He was the party’s presidential successful candidate for president of the country in both the 2009 and 2014 general elections.
His time in office was marred by widespread allegations of state capture and corruption, but he is about to make a comeback to politics – even after spending time in jail in 2021.
Just last week, an Ipsos poll placed the MKP’s support at 8.4%. He is the first name that appears on its list of candidates for parliament. His decampaigning spells trouble for the ANC, which the same poll placed at 40%.
