ANC to rubber-stamp position on Zuma predicament on Sunday

The African National Congress (ANC) National Executive Committee (NEC) is expected to rubber-stamp its position on former President Jacob Zuma on Sunday.

The NEC will resumed its two-day meeting after it was adjourned on Saturday to allow its members to attend the funeral of the late Violet Siwela in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga.

It is believed that some of Zuma’s known allies in the ANC have laid the groundwork for his expulsion from the governing party to become a possibility, according to EWN.

NEC in favour of Zuma suspension

The NEC which is the ANC’s highest decision-making body is seemingly in favour of Zuma being placed on suspension following a meeting on Friday where there was apparently consensus with majority believing that by Zuma campaigning for a different party he has basically signed his own resignation.

Addressing the media on Friday ahead of the party’s NEC meeting at the Birchwood Hotel and OR Tambo Conference Centre ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula explained that Zuma was removed as an ex-officio member of the highest decision-making body after he was sentenced for ignoring a court order to testify at the state capture inquiry.

“Zuma and other former presidents attend meetings as per invitation of the NEC to honour them and their contribution. Since he was incarcerated, the NEC at that moment stopped inviting him to the NEC and there’s not been any change in relation to that, so we don’t expect him to attend the NEC because he was not invited for quite some time. The NEC will reapply its mind as to what happens going forward regarding the invitations,” said Mbalula.

MK Party

Zuma announced that he would support the Umkhonto weSizwe party (MK) party ahead of the 2024 general elections because the ANC has strayed from its core values.

ALSO READ: ‘Zuma no longer a member of the ANC,’ says Bheki Mtolo

The former president has been on a campaign trail for the newly formed MK party, which has been seen by many as a breakaway faction of the ANC.

Analysts labelled Zuma’s move a blow for the ANC, and its Veterans League said it amounted to “treason and treachery”. It called for “strong action” to be taken against the former president.

Zuma not member of ANC

Last week, KwaZulu-Natal provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo said Zuma was “no longer a member of the ANC.

“We have not left him, he has left the ANC… I think it is the hatred for (Cyril) Ramaphosa, but also he has realised that the ANC has at some point got enough of serving only his interest at some point.”

“I can tell you the support that we have given president Zuma, even after we were elected in 2022, the support we have given him is beyond any person, but there is a limit where you say I can’t go beyond this,” Mtolo said.

Mtolo said Zuma is not a member of the ANC. “He has not been expelled, he has left the ANC.”

ALSO READ: ANC has not invited Zuma to NEC meetings since his arrest – Mbalula