Former President Jacob Zuma who now leads uMkhonto weSizwe Party. Picture: Itumeleng English/ Independent Newspapers
Durban — The clock is ticking away for former president Jacob Zuma to appeal his expulsion from the ANC, with his 21-day appeal window period expiring on Sunday.
Zuma was unceremoniously axed from the ANC - a party he claims to have joined when he was just 17 years old - on July 29.
His charges stemmed from allegedly bringing the party into disrepute - a charge that emanated from him publicly endorsing the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) in December and later campaigning for it ahead of the May 29 elections.
Asked whether the appeal period included weekends, the acting ANC spokesperson Zuko Godlimpi said, “This is not a workplace. So we don’t have ‘21 working days’. It’s 21 days straight.”
This essentially means that Zuma’s appeal period would end on Sunday.
Godlimpi said the ANC - a party that Zuma led as president for 10 years between 2007 and 2017 - had not received any appeal from Zuma.
Zuma has been on the receiving end of the wrath of the ANC ever since campaigning and later leading the MKP, which dented the ANC’s prospects in the elections.
For the first time since 1994, the ANC plunged below the 50+1 percent outright majority nationally to 40%.
In KZN, the losses were epic for the once-dominant party, dropping from 54% to 17%, and it was subsequently dethroned from the political top seat in the coastal province.
The ANC attributed its election losses to the emergence of the MKP.
During the recent ANC National Executive Committee meeting, the party’s 1st deputy secretary-general, Nomvula Mokonyane, publicly admitted that MKP led to the ANC’s dramatic slide.
“But we are now embarking on a post-election assessment and will come back stronger in the 2026 local government elections,” said Mokonyane.
Zuma, who now leads the MKP, has not indicated if he would appeal the decision. However, those close to him had previously said that he was likely to not appeal the decision.
Expelling Zuma, the eight-member disciplinary committee said: “In the NDC’s view, it placed him (Zuma) in direct conflict with the ANC constitution, which does not permit dual membership with parties not in alliance with the ANC. The ANC feels so strongly about this that Rule 25.17.13 of the constitution makes it an expellable offence for a member to join or support a political organisation or party not in alliance with the ANC.”
The committee included - among others - Zuma’s one-time die-hard backers Faith Muthambi and Nocawe Mafu.
Zuma’s new political home, the MKP, won 58 seats of the 400 in the National Assembly and 37 in the 80-seater provincial legislature in KZN - a stunning feat for a new party.
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