Zuma launched the application on the day the country marks the 70th Anniversary of the adoption of the Freedom Charter.
MK party leader and former president Jacob Zuma is not giving up on being reinstated as an ANC member, and is taking the fight to the courts.
As the country marks the 70th Anniversary of the adoption of the Freedom Charter on Thursday, Zuma is adamant that the disciplinary process that resulted in his firing was unlawful.
After threatening legal action in January this year, Zuma has now launched an application against President Cyril Ramaphosa and the ANC to set aside the decision to terminate his membership of the ANC.
The MK party claims the decision to terminate Zuma’s 65-year membership in the ANC was “unlawful.”
ANC membership
MK party national spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela said Zuma wants to be reinstated as an ANC member.
“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.
“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 five months later in the May 2024 elections.
“The symbolic institution of the application on Freedom Charter Day serves as a reminder of the unforgivable betrayal of the people by the ANC of Ramaphosa, which has reversed even the small gains achieved since 1994.
“It did so by entering into the sell-out so-called GNU deal, which is nothing but a grand coalition with the right-wing DA and the Freedom Front Plus,” Ndhlela said.
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How can Zuma be an MK party and ANC member?
Ndhlela said the MK party is supporting Zuma in the matter.
“The MK Party is fully behind President Zuma in this ground-breaking case, which will 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.
Ndhlela added that the MK party’s constitution allows for dual membership in exceptional circumstances.
Zuma tenacious
This is not the first time that Zuma demanded to be reinstated as a member of the ANC after being expelled from the party.
In January, Zuma’s lawyers wrote to ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula saying his expulsion as a member of the party was “unlawful”.
In a letter dated 8 January, the lawyers said Zuma will pursue legal action if the ANC fails to address his concerns and reinstate him by 31 January 2025.
“We are instructed to inform you that the aforesaid expulsion was illegal and/or in breach of both the ANC Constitution and/or the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa for various grounds,” his lawyers, KMNS Attorney, argued.
Intimidation
The lawyer’s letter further outlines significant procedural and substantive concerns regarding the processes undertaken by the ANC’s National Disciplinary Committee (NDC) and the National Disciplinary Committee of Appeal (NDCA).
“The failure and/or refusal of the ANC to accede to the requirement to hold the disciplinary process and/or the appeal hearing physically, more so after having agreed to do so but inexplicably somersaulting on the said agreement;
The letter further noted pronouncements and actions by Mbalula, who reportedly engaged in acts of “intimidation, victimisation, and targeted insults” against Zuma’s representative Tony Yengeni, whose “only sin” was to represent the former president.
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Zuma fired
The ANC officially cut ties with the MK party leader in July last year after the party’s national disciplinary committee (NDC) resolved to expel him following a disciplinary hearing held on 23 July in his absence.
Zuma was given 21 days to appeal the expulsion, but that period had elapsed, according to ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula.
‘End of era ‘
In August last year, ANC Veterans League president Snuki Zikalala said the end of the Zuma era is a “chapter of renewal” for the ANC.
“This chapter is a chapter of renewal, saying that those who are undermining the organisation, using the organisation as a stepping stone to ensure that they divide the organisation, have no place in the organisation itself.
“Those who are involved in counter-revolutionary activities don’t have a home in the ANC,” Zikalala said.
In December last year, the ANC accused the former president of contravening Rule 25 of the party’s constitution by forming the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party.
According to the party, Zuma’s failure to campaign or vote for the ANC was tantamount to a breach of rule 25 of the party’s constitution.
‘Die in the ANC’
While Zuma may now be a card-carrying member of the ANC, he said in May 2024 that he would “die in the ANC”.
“I’ve sacrificed my life. I was ready to die. I went to prison. I went into exile, and some of the people who are leading – they don’t even know what exile is all about. They don’t know; they’ve never been in prison.
“I have contributed to this ANC. If you listen to my terminology, I said I will die in the ANC,” Zuma said while acknowledging that he is a member of the MK party.
During Zuma’s tenure as president, he was found to be in breach of the Constitution.
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