‘Why is ANC not expelling Solly Mapaila?': Mzwanele Manyi says Jacob Zuma was targeted

Former president Jacob Zuma believes the process which got him expelled from the African National Congress (ANC) was not fair, as he was targeted by his former comrades who eliminated him from the former liberation movement.

Despite registering his uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party and scoring some notable strides in the May 2024 elections, Zuma is fighting tooth and nail for his ANC membership.

On Wednesday, IOL reported that Zuma had slapped the ANC with a letter of demand, giving the organisation an ultimatum to reinstate his membership by January 31 or face court action.

In the letter to the party, Zuma’s attorney Thabo Kwinana outlined 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 letter says Zuma's expulsion was “not procedural and invalid”, citing irregularities that would likely be upheld by an independent legal review.

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula reacted angrily, dismissing Zuma’s demand for reinstatement into the party, calling the letter “mischief".

Mbalula insisted Zuma’s expulsion was in line with the ANC’s constitution, and the party would not be diverted from its focus on celebrating its 113th anniversary. Mbalula also criticised Zuma’s timing.

“He had an opportunity to send his love letter many days ago, but he didn’t, but he chose this day.

He further accused Zuma of seeking to create division within the ANC, labelling him as "a ridiculous old man who thrives on dis-unity for his own self-interest".

"He doesn’t serve SA, he doesn’t serve the ANC, he doesn’t serve our people, he serves himself and only himself," said Mbalula.

Responding to Mbalula’s utterances, spokesperson for the Jacob Zuma Foundation, Mzwanele Manyi, who is also the chief whip of the MK party in Parliament, said Mbalula does not know what he is talking about.

“The Foundation does not react to Mbalula. As you can see, he is just an exasperated fellow that does not know what to do. He doesn’t even know that the NEC of the ANC is not the highest decision-making structure of the ANC. There is still the conference. So, he speaks as if the final has been said on president Zuma and yet the same constitution of the ANC knows that the NEC is indeed a structure in between conferences but the conference still remains the highest decision-making body,” Manyi spoke to Newzroom Afrika.

“President Zuma can still go to the conference of the ANC. The matter is not done. President Zuma has decided that in the interim, he will go to court because there were a whole range of procedural flaws that were in that NDC and NDCA.

Manyi insisted that Zuma was targeted, arguing that if laws were applied equally, action would also have been taken against SA Communist Party general-secretary Solly Mapaila who has bluntly told ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa that the SACP will contest the 2026 local government elections alone, dumping the ANC.

“If you are to go to the merits and look at the inconsistencies of this decision, there is nothing in relation to what president Zuma has said to date that Solly Mapaila has not also said. But nothing is happening to Mapaila. President Zuma said MK party will be registered and will contest elections, then he gets all kinds of excitement by the ANC of Ramaphosa. They want to do all kinds of things to him,” said Manyi.

“Mapaila says the same thing a few days ago, he said he will register SACP as a party to contest elections and contest the ANC – and nothing happens to him. The ANC says it is an organisation of integrity, and then you have its own so-called president that has stashed millions (of dollars) in the couches and the ANC turns a blind eye to this.”

jonisayi.maromo@iol.co.za 

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