The president of the party's Veterans League Snuki Zikalala says expelling Jacob Zuma would bring unwanted attention and take the party’s focus off vital issues in the lead-up to this year’s elections.
As the ANC battles to come up with an appropriate way to deal with rebellious former president Jacob Zuma, the president of the party’s Veterans League Snuki Zikalala says expelling him would bring unwanted attention and take the party’s focus off vital issues in the lead-up to this year’s elections.
While the ANC’s constitution stipulates automatic expulsion for a member who forms or campaigns for another party, Zikalala is among those who believe that ousting Zuma would be playing into his hands.
Last month, Zuma shocked ANC members when he announced that he would not vote or campaign for the governing party in the coming elections and would instead be supporting the newly formed uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party.
Justifying his actions, he said the ANC led by President Cyril Ramaphosa was not the organisation he once knew.
Zuma’s move has been viewed as a direct provocation to expel him.
The ANC national executive committee was expected to discuss Zuma in its first meeting this year but this was deferred.
However, the party has been mum on whether the Zuma issue was discussed in the meeting held on Thursday night in preparation for Saturday’s 8 January anniversary celebrations in Mbombela, Mpumalanga.
Speaking to the Mail & Guardian, Zikalala said the ANC believed it should not make a noise about Zuma’s formation of the MK party but rather give attention to building the party’s structures.
“Immediately, if he is being expelled, the focus will be on that and we feel we should not discuss that. He has expelled himself and he has served us with divorce papers. We just have to process the divorce papers,” Zikalala said.
“Rule 25 of the ANC constitution says immediately you do anything that undermines the authority of the ANC, it means that you have crossed the line.”
ANC Youth League president Collen Malatji told the M&G last week that there was no need to even discuss Zuma as he had already expelled himself from the party.
“We are popularising a dead snake — he is a dead snake that expelled himself. The moment he joined or formed another political party, the constitution of the ANC automatically expelled him.
“It does not need a meeting or anybody, it’s an automatic expulsion. He expelled himself because he went outside the values or the principles of the ANC,” Malatji said.
He said ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula should not give Zuma the “attention he craves” but should instead focus on making sure the party reclaims the trust of society and wins the elections.
The party of expelled former ANC secretary general Ace Magashule, the African Congress for Transformation, is expected to form a “united front” with MK in the coming elections.
Zikalala said the ANC “wished Magashule and Zuma luck” as they were entitled to form their own parties.
“Ace Magashule is being charged with corruption; JZ is involved in state capture.
“The state capture was not a small thing and it deprived the majority of South Africans, especially the poor, of resources that were needed to build this country,” he said.
“We are saying that all those who were implicated in the Zondo Commission should face the full might of the law.
“He [Zuma] is one of them and that is why he ran away,” he added.
Zuma was “the last person who can unite people to build the economy”.
“He has destroyed the country and the party itself. As veterans, we say let him go away and do what he wants. We are relieved that is not there because he was dividing the party,” Zikalala said.
The ANC would prioritise building unity and implementing policies.
“Let the focus be on rebuilding the structures of the ANC, making sure that the ANC delivers on its promises and making sure that, where we have failed — especially in municipalities — we put in infrastructure.
“We do not have to concentrate on individuals but on building the lives of the poor,” he said.