South Africa’s ruling African National Congress party (ANC) Monday suspended its former President Jacob Zuma’s membership after he withdrew his support for the party, local media reported.
Zuma now has 48 hours to respond to the party’s national executive committee’s (NEC) suspension decision, state broadcaster SABC quoted sources within the committee as saying.
The ANC has yet to issue an official statement on the issue.
Zuma announced in December he was withdrawing his support for the ANC, where he has been a member for over 60 years.
“After much reflection, it truly saddens me that the ANC of today is not the once great movement that we lived and were prepared to lay down our lives for,” Zuma, 81, told reporters on the outskirts of Johannesburg.
Zuma, who served as leader of the ANC and the country for nearly a decade said he would not vote for the ANC in the 2024 elections and will campaign for the newly formed Umkhonto We Sizwe party.
He said his conscience will not allow him to pretend that President Cyril Ramaphosa’s ANC is the party of late founding father Nelson Mandela or the late Oliver Tambo or Albert John Luthuli, who once led the party.
He claimed dissenting voices are being suppressed under Ramaphosa.
The ANC constitution bars members from supporting or campaigning for other organizations whose objectives are not similar to theirs.