Zuma to benefit from media attention during ANC DC: Analyst

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Political Analyst Susan Booysen says former African National Congress (ANC) President and now uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party leader, Jacob Zuma, will get a lot of media attention out of the disciplinary hearing scheduled by the ruling party.

Zuma is expected to appear before the disciplinary committee at Luthuli House on Tuesday next week. He is facing two counts of contravening the ANC Constitution.

This comes as South Africa prepares for the general elections later this month.

Booysen elaborates, “Former President Zuma, he will get a lot of mileage and a lot of media interviews, exposure out of this and we know the context that he is using now that he doesn’t recognise quote unquote Ramaphosa’s ANC and that is really a factional matter. And that he is actually the proprietor of the real ANC, he is the holder of the values etc, that type of narrative.”

Meanwhile, ANC’s Kgalema Motlanthe says Zuma has made his own choices and wrote his own history as a politician and leader of an organisation.

Motlanthe has defended the ruling party’s timing of its disciplinary action against Zuma.  Motlanthe is on the campaign trail for the ANC in Soweto.

The ANC previously indicated there was no need to take action against its former leader as he had voluntarily left the organisation. This is despite Zuma maintaining that he was still a member of the governing party.

Motlanthe says the organisation had to ensure that it was fair to the former ANC leader.

“The organisation has to ensure that it follows proper procedure because in all cases of ill-discipline, there are two standards to measure fairness. The first one is whether you have a substantive case against the individual. The second one is whether you followed fair procedures. So procedural fairness is one of the tests for being fair and just to whoever you have a relationship with as an organisation.”