Former president Jacob Zuma is not the first, nor will he be the last prominent politician to be expelled by the African National Congress (ANC). However, he is undoubtedly one of the most prominent party figures to be booted out of the party founded in 1912.
Zuma as a former president, deputy president, chairperson and deputy secretary general of the ANC, was among the most revered in the party’s history.
According to a leaked document from the ANC’s National Disciplinary Committee, headed by Envy Surty, Zuma has been expelled from the ANC, an organisation he joined when he was 17. The ANC’s Secretary General Fikile Mbalula confirmed at a media briefing on Monday, July 29, that Zuma had indeed been expelled from the ruling party.
The former uMkhonto WeSizwe commander was found guilty on misconduct charges for forming, joining and campaigning for the uMkhonto we Sizwe Party (MKP), a rival political party to the ANC, which was formed in December.
Despite vowing he would die ANC, Zuma and his MKP dealt the ANC a massive blow in the recent May 29 elections as it garnered over 14% of the national vote and ensured the governing party slumped from a 57% elections majority to under 40%.
As the ANC issues Zuma with a red card, IOL looks into other prominent political figures who have been expelled by the party.
Like them, most had pledged to never leave the ANC.
“I know that the prophets of doom have always predicted that the ANC will one day break ... (because) of the problems in the ANC and the alliance.
“I think people do not understand the ANC. The ANC will never break,”Zuma told BBC World in October 2006, saying he would not be like Robert Sobukwe and Bantu Holomisa, former prominent ANC leaders, who were expelled and later formed their own parties.
Zuma made the comments when he was in the political wilderness after he had been fired from government by former president Thabo Mbeki. At the time, he remained deputy president of the ANC despite being fired from government.
Here are some other leaders who were expelled by the ANC.
Julius Malema, February 2012
Malema was a vocal leader in the ANC as president of the ANC Youth League between 2008 and 2012. Once a vocal supporter of Zuma, Malema’s fortunes in the ANC changed when he clashed with Zuma on several matters, before he was subsequently booted out of the party.
The current president Cyril Ramaphosa signed Malema’s expulsion letter as the then head of the ANC’s national disciplinary committee.
Malema was expelled from the ANC in 2012 for bringing the party into disrepute and sowing division within its ranks.
In the lead up to his expulsion, in 2010, he had been found guilty of sowing division in the party by comparing the leadership of former president Thabo Mbeki and that of President Jacob Zuma.
He was shown the door for good in 2012 on two charges of sowing division within the party for his critical comments on Botswana and the decline of the African agenda.
Malema went on to form the Economic Freedom Fighters in July 2013. The EFF is the fourth largest political party in the country.
Ace Magashule, June 2023
Another prominent former leader of the ANC to get shown the door is former secretary general Ace Magashule. The former Free State Premier was expelled in June last year on misconduct charges.
Magashule tried unsuccessfully to suspend Ramaphosa. The botched Ramaphosa suspension would eventually lead to his expulsion.
He is now the leader of the African Congress Transformation (ACT), which failed to make an impact in the May 29 elections.
Bantu Holomisa, September 1996
Bantu Holomisa was expelled from the ANC in September 1996 also on misconduct related charges.
Holomisa was a former member of the ANC national executive committee and Member of Parliament. He also served as a deputy minister in the late former president Nelson Mandela’s Cabinet.
According to a SAPA report from September 1996, then ANC chairperson Jacob Zuma told a media briefing at the ANC's head office in Johannesburg:
“The NEC ... after due consideration unanimously confirmed the findings of the national disciplinary committee and upheld the sentence passed.”
Holomisa was a popular leader of the ANC at the time of his expulsion, having received the most votes out of all ANC NEC members at the time.
Holomisa went on to form the United Democratic Movement (UDM), which has been in Parliament since 1999.
He is currently serving in Ramaphosa’s Cabinet as the deputy minister of defence after the UDM joined the Government of National Unity.
Carl Niehaus, December 2022
Former ANC spokesperson Carl Niehaus was expelled from the party in December 2022 after the NDC found him guilty on six charges of misconduct and bringing the party into disrepute.
The Zuma ally, who was also the spokesperson of the ANC’s Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veteran’s Association was found guilty after his comments about Zuma’s imprisonment in July 2021.
At the time of Zuma’s arrest, Niehaus defended the former president vehemently and while wearing party colours. The ANC deemed the comments to be beyond the bounds of freedom of speech.
Niehaus had also called for the mass mobilisation in defence of Zuma to continue.
“The utterances of the charged member were made at a time when the circumstances surrounding the arrest and subsequent committal to prison of former president Zuma was very volatile as evidenced by the subsequent riots which took place in KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng and the resultant loss of life and limb and damage to and loss of property,” the NDC ruled.
Niehaus is now an EFF MP, having joined the Red Berets just days before the public announcement of the MK Party on December 16, 2023.
IOL