Former President Jacob Zuma’s battle to remain an ANC party member has again been thrust into the spotlight after he hauled president Cyril Ramaphosa and his former party to court on Thursday.

Zuma, who is the former president of the ANC and now leader of the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) launched a court application in a bid to challenge his expulsion from the party. 

His decision to take the ANC and its leader to court came after the party’s disciplinary committee expelled him in July 2024 for publicly endorsing the MKP ahead of the general elections.

He argued that the disciplinary steps that the ANC followed in 2024 were illegal and violated his constitutional rights.  

In a surprising revelation, Zuma admitted that he wants to remain in the ANC to take it over and “rescue” it from its current leadership. 

In a podcast, Zuma stated that he wants to stay within the ANC to change it from within, claiming that the current leadership had strayed from the principles of the party’s founders.

“If I was not a member of that organisation [ANC] it would be very difficult to try to change it from the inside. They would ask what I wanted from their organisation when I was not a member…and that would be the end of the debate,” Zuma said.

Zuma’s court application, launched on Thursday, the 70th anniversary of the Freedom Charter, seeks to set aside the ANC’s decision to terminate his 65-year-long membership. 

MKP spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela has labeled the ANC’s disciplinary hearing as a “kangaroo court” and accused the party of “betraying the people by entering into a Government of National Unity (GNU) with the DA and Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus)”.

“President Zuma is on record saying that his membership of the real ANC of Luthuli, Tambo and Mandela cannot be erased by sell-outs and DA puppets like Ramaphosa and Mbalula (ANC secretary-general). 

“It was indeed the sell-out tendencies of these traitors which led to the formation of the MK Party on 16 December 2023 and the removal of the ANC from power 5 months later in the May 2024 elections,” Ndhlela said.

Ndhlela further said his party was fully behind Zuma and would hopefully see his dual membership of the MK Party and the real ANC, not the “sell-out ANC of Ramaphosa”, restored. 

“Such an outcome will bring us closer to the much-needed unity of black people in the centuries old struggle for total liberation and the return of the land to its rightful owners, the African people as a whole,” Ndhlela said.

ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu did not respond to a request for comment, however, Mbalula had previously labelled Zuma’s attempts to challenge his dismissal from the party as mischief. 

“He (Zuma) is a mischievous, uncouth, ridiculous old man who basically thrives on disunity for his own self-interest,” Mbalula had said, although it was not clear whether the ANC would oppose the court challenge.

Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya had also not responded to questions.

Sources within the ANC have expressed skepticism about Zuma’s intentions, with some  suggesting that he is simply trying to destabilise the party and others saying he would be good for the party ahead of the 2026 Local Government Elections. 

“This man (Zuma) just wants to waste money with lawyers and the courts. This is precisely why he created the MKP, just to destabilise the ANC,” a source said.

Another source hinted that Zuma’s desire to remain in the ANC might be linked to his pension benefits. 

“There is talk amongst comrades of changing the country’s constitution on the remuneration of former presidents to take away Zuma’s pension…so that would be another reason he wants to continue within the party,” the source said.

Political analyst Professor Siphamandla Zondi from the University of Johannesburg believes that Zuma’s fight with the ANC is premised on the view that the current faction within the party is different from the one he had led.

“Zuma assumes that the current faction is linked to White Monopoly Capital or the liberal right…He thinks that it needs to be responded to and when he failed in two conferences to defeat the faction, he ended up forming the MKP,” Zondi said.

Another analyst, Sandile Swana, believes that Zuma’s objective is to acquire the ANC and revamp its operations.

“Zuma’s recent demand to be reinstated is merely a strategic move in his larger scheme to take over the party,” Swana said.

mashudu.sadike@inl.co.za

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