Former South African president Zuma faces expulsion from the ANC after joining a rival party

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Former South African President Jacob Zuma’s disciplinary hearing with the African National Congress was postponed Wednesday for more arguments, as he faces expulsion for campaigning against the organization he once led as head of a new political party in national elections in May.

The hearing could see Zuma, 82, become the first former leader to be thrown out of the ANC, which he joined in the late 1950s when it was a liberation movement fighting against the apartheid system of white minority rule.

Zuma did not appear at Wednesday’s virtual hearing and was instead represented by an ANC official, as the party’s constitution allows. His new MK Party said Zuma is arguing for the hearing to be held in person and open to the public. It said the ANC rejected those requests but agreed to postpone it until next Tuesday.

Zuma was forced to step down as South African president in 2018 after losing the support of the ANC amid allegations of corruption. He has been embroiled in a political feud since then with President Cyril Ramaphosa, who replaced him as the leader of the party and the country.

Zuma’s split with the ANC was confirmed in December, when he announced he would campaign for the recently-founded MK Party in the May 29 election.

While Zuma said he would retain his ANC membership despite becoming the leader of the MK Party, the ANC suspended him in January. It said he had attacked its integrity.

Zuma has been called a destabilizing figure in Africa’s most industrialized country, but his MK Party won 14% of the national vote in the first election it has contested, stunning many.

MK’s surprising share of the vote was a prime factor in the ANC losing its majority for the first time since the end of apartheid in 1994 in an historic result for South Africa, leading to the formation of a multi-party coalition government.

MK has refused to join the coalition and will become the official opposition as the third biggest party in Parliament. Parliament will open Thursday for a new term.

The election reinforced how popular Zuma remains in parts of the country despite facing multiple legal battles. He was sentenced to prison in 2021 for contempt of court after refusing to testify at an inquiry into alleged corruption during his presidency from 2009-2018. He is due to go on trial next year over separate corruption allegations relating to the time before he was president.

His prison sentence led to him being disqualified from standing for a seat in Parliament in the May election, but he has continued to be the face and the leader of the MK Party.

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