South Africa: Minister calls for ANC to discipline Jacob Zuma

(Reuters) – South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) should discipline President Jacob Zuma for bringing the party into disrepute, housing minister and presidential hopeful Lindiwe Sisulu said on Friday.

Sisulu’s comments are the latest swipe taken at Zuma by former allies as the ANC fractures ahead of an elective conference in December where a new party leader will be chosen.
Zuma can remain in office as head of state until a 2019 – when his term expires.

Sisulu, a veteran cabinet minister who comes from a prominent family in the struggle against apartheid, is seen as an outside bet to succeed Zuma.

She said a report presented at the ANC’s policy conference in July found that scandals surrounding Zuma had caused tensions and disquiet within the party.

“If we all agreed at the policy conference that that is what happened to the president, why was he not taken through a disciplinary process?” Sisulu told Eyewitness News, a domestic news service.
“I have been insisting that there must be a disciplinary process so that if there is an interpretation that you put the ANC into disrepute, that is an offense.”

Spokespersons for Sisulu and Zuma did not respond to calls for comment.

Members of the ANC have called for Zuma to step down in recent months following a series of corruption scandals, a much-criticized cabinet reshuffle and a failure to handle an economy that slipped into recession this year.

Lawmaker Makhosi Khoza, a strident critic of Zuma, quit the ANC on Thursday, labeling Nelson Mandela’s 105-year-old liberation movement “alien and corrupt”.

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa is viewed as a frontrunner to take over as ANC leader.