By Simon Nare
Former president Jacob Zuma is demanding the immediate reinstatement of his ANC membership failing which he will drag the party to court and argue that his expulsion from the party is unlawful and unprocedural.
Zuma, who is now the leader of the opposition MK Party, through a letter by his lawyers sent to ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula, has given the party until the end of the month to reinstate him or face legal action.
“Such steps may entail approaching the courts for appropriate relief including seeking an order for the immediate reinstatement of President Zuma’s membership of the ANC and punitive costs,” his lawyers stated in a letter.
Zuma highlighted several procedural transgressions by the ANC’s national disciplinary committee and national disciplinary committee of appeal (NDCA), which he argued were in breach of the ANC Constitution.
Further, he argued that his representative in the disciplinary hearing, ANC veteran Tony Yengeni, was being victimised by Mbalula as a strategy to deprive him of his right as enshrined in the party’s constitution.
Mbalula on Monday announced that Yengeni would face a disciplinary charge for several unsavory social media posts which brought the party into disrepute.
Zuma said the disciplinary process was fraught with several procedural transgressions.
These included:
* The failure and/or refusal of the ANC to accede to the requirement to hold the disciplinary process and/or the appeal hearing physically more so after having agreed to do so but inexplicably somersaulting on the said agreement
*The failure and/or refusal to hold the process in public
*The failure and/or refusal to postpone the NDC hearing when it was legally bound to do so
*The failure to properly convene a pre-hearing on mutually convenient dates
*The failure and/or refusal to deal with the repeated conduct of the ANC secretary general in, inter alia, intimidating, victimising and hurling gratuitous insults on Mr Tony Yengeni, whose only sin was to represent President Zuma.
*The failure to grant our client an opportunity to lead evidence in mitigation
*The failure to deal, adequately or at all, with the issues raised in the original and/or amended notices of review and/or appeal which are in the possession of the ANC and/or the NDCA
*The refusal to entertain the grounds of appeal based on procedural transgressions of the ANC Constitution
*The failure to comply with the ANC’s own rules in respect of NDCA proceedings, including the timelines specified therein.
*The failure and/or refusal to furnish Zuma with a complete record in respect of the NDCA proceedings so as to afford him his right of appeal in terms of the Rules of the NDCA
*The failure and/or refusal to give reasons for the dismissal of the appeal.
Zuma, through his lawyers, argued that he was being treated unfairly for supporting the MKP and punished for his association with MK.
Zuma argued that his numerous requests for the reasons of the NDCA to deny him an opportunity to appeal had so far fallen on deaf years. Each time he would be promised that the reasons would be forwarded to committee’s chairperson Jonny de Lange.
“To date no response has been received. This continues to frustrate our client’s ability to protect his violated rights This continues to frustrate our client’s ability to protect his violated rights.
“We are therefore instructed to demand, as we hereby do, that the ANC must take all the necessary steps to ensure that such a reasoned ruling of the NCDA is furnished, without delay,” reads the letter.
It demands that Zuma be provided with all the full record of the NDC/NDCA proceedings, including all outstanding relevant documents and correspondence.
It further demands that the expulsion ruling is immediately reversed pending proper compliance with the ANC Constitution and the Constitution of the Republic.
“Failure to comply with the above on or before 31 January 2025, will result in our client taking all the legal steps necessary to vindicate, inter alia, his violated rights in respect of all the aforegoing issues, without any further notice to the ANC,” threatened the letter.
INSIDE POLITICS
