The African National Congress party severed ties with its former leader over his decision to become the leading voice of an opposition party in the last election, calling its platform “dangerous.”

The African National Congress announced on Monday that it had expelled from the party the country’s former president, Jacob Zuma, casting him as a traitor who formed a rival political organization and peddled dangerous rhetoric in an effort to take down the party he once led.

“His platform is dangerous, appeals to extremist instincts in our body politic and riles up a political base that may foment social unrest,” said Fikile Mbalula, the secretary general of the African National Congress, the country’s governing party, during a news conference on Monday.

Mr. Zuma was a celebrated anti-apartheid activist with the African National Congress, or A.N.C., but has been at odds with the party since being forced to resign as president in 2018 amid a series of corruption scandals.

He brought his populist brand of grievance politics to this year’s national election, with his new party, uMkhonto weSizwe, known as M.K., running on a platform of seizing white-owned land to empower the Black majority, and overhauling South Africa’s constitution.

His party’s surprisingly strong performance helped to prevent the A.N.C. from winning an absolute majority for the first time since the end of apartheid 30 years ago. Yet Mr. Zuma still claimed, without providing evidence, that the A.N.C. had manipulated the results.

Mr. Zuma’s new M.K. party is now the leading opposition party, having won 58 out of 400 seats in Parliament. The A.N.C. was forced to partner with other rival parties to form a coalition to govern the country, in what it is calling a government of national unity.

Officials with Mr. Zuma’s party have said that it would never work with the A.N.C. as long as it continues to be led by his successor and nemesis, President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Mr. Zuma joined the A.N.C. as a teenager, when it was a liberation movement resisting the white apartheid government. At 21, he was arrested by the apartheid police and spent a decade on Robben Island, serving a prison sentence alongside Nelson Mandela and other political stalwarts.

Yet under the leadership of Mr. Zuma, who was twice elected as A.N.C. president, the party lurched from scandal to scandal, and veteran freedom fighters accused him of attracting new members driven by self-interest. A yearslong corruption inquiry found that he had allowed friends and associates to loot state-owned companies.

Mr. Zuma after casting his ballot in elections last May. His new party, uMkhonto weSizwe, known as M.K., helped prevent the A.N.C. from winning an absolute majority.Credit…Emilio Morenatti/Associated Press

The AN.C.’s national disciplinary committee found Mr. Zuma guilty of “prejudicing the integrity or repute of the organization by acting in collaboration with” an opposing political party, Mr. Mbalula said.

He added that Mr. Zuma “has been running on a dangerous platform that casts doubt on our entire constitutional edifice.”

Mr. Zuma will have 21 days to appeal his expulsion. The M.K. party released a statement saying that the former president was denied due process by being sentenced after a virtual hearing in which he was not present. The party called the hearing a “kangaroo court.”

Mr. Mbalula called those criticisms hypocritical, noting that M.K. had dismissed some of its members, including the man who officially founded the party, without holding hearings.

“Who are they to lecture people about a due process?” he said.

Critics say the expulsion should have come long ago. Mr. Zuma became the face of endemic corruption within the A.N.C. after a nine-year tenure riddled with accusations that he sold the interests of the state to benefit himself and his close allies.

The widespread corruption, while many South Africans continue to struggle economically, cost the A.N.C. significant popular support. And many critics said that the party’s failure to deal with Mr. Zuma was a sign that it was not serious about cleaning house.

Mr. Zuma leaving court in Pietermaritzburg where he was appearing on corruption charges in 2019.Credit…Michele Spatari/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The A.N.C.’s electoral support plummeted to 40 percent in the election in May, about an 18-percentage point drop from the previous election five years ago. Mr. Mbalula conceded that the rise of Mr. Zuma’s party, which finished third in the election, was a major reason for the A.N.C.’s slide.

The A.N.C. suspended Mr. Zuma in January, about a month after he announced his support for M.K. The A.N.C. had scheduled a disciplinary hearing for early May, less than a month before the election, to determine whether to kick Mr. Zuma out of the party. But the A.N.C. postponed that hearing, citing concerns that protests by M.K. members could lead to unrest.

But some analysts believed that politics also played a factor in the delay.

Mr. Zuma, 82, maintains a fervent following within the A.N.C., especially in his home province, KwaZulu-Natal, home of the Zulu ethnic group. His support comes from those who believe that the government of Mr. Ramaphosa needs to take more aggressive steps to lift Black South Africans out of poverty. Expelling Mr. Zuma right before the election could have deepened his supporters’ belief that he is a political martyr.

Mr. Zuma was jailed three years ago for contempt of court for refusing to testify before a public inquiry into corruption during his time as president — a move that he and his supporters argue was orchestrated by his opponents within the A.N.C. When the nation’s top court ruled that Mr. Zuma could not serve in Parliament because of that jail sentence, it only deepened the grievance among his supporters that he was being unfairly treated.

Even though Mr. Zuma could not hold office, he appeared on campaign posters and his picture was on the ballot for M.K. He also led political rallies that attracted thousands of voters.

Supporters of the newly formed uMkhonto weSizwe party during a rally in eMalahleni, South Africa, in May.Credit…Michele Spatari/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

As leader of the new opposition, Mr. Zuma has accused Mr. Ramaphosa of corruption and wrongdoing, which the president has denied. Analysts and political rivals believe that Mr. Zuma’s return to politics was driven by a desire to humiliate his former party, and particularly Mr. Ramaphosa, for not supporting him when he was arrested in 2021 on charges of contempt of court.

Ongama Mtimka, a political analyst at Nelson Mandela University, in Gqeberha, said of Mr. Ramaphosa, “He got to be perceived as somebody who takes too long to take action against rabble rousers.”

Mr. Zuma’s expulsion could help bolster Mr. Ramaphosa’s ability to appear decisive and in control, he added.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/