CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Former South African President Jacob Zuma's disciplinary hearing with the African National Congress was postponed Wednesday for more arguments, as he faces expulsion for campaigning against the organization he once led as head of a new political party in national elections in May.
The hearing could see Zuma, 82, become the first former leader to be thrown out of the ANC, which he joined in the late 1950s when it was a liberation movement fighting against the apartheid system of white minority rule.
Zuma did not appear at Wednesday's virtual hearing and was instead represented by an ANC official, as the party's constitution allows. His new MK Party said Zuma is arguing for the hearing to be held in person and open to the public. It said the ANC rejected those requests but agreed to postpone it until next Tuesday.
Zuma was forced to step down as South African president in 2018 after losing the support of the ANC amid allegations of corruption. He has been embroiled in a political feud since then with President Cyril Ramaphosa, who replaced him as the leader of the party and the country.
Zuma's split with the ANC was confirmed in December, when he announced he would campaign for the recently-founded MK Party in the May 29 election.
While Zuma said he would retain his ANC membership despite becoming the leader of the MK Party, the ANC suspended him in January. It said he had attacked its integrity.
Zuma has been called a destabilizing figure in Africa's most industrialized country, but his MK Party won 14% of the national vote in the first election it has contested, stunning many.
MK's surprising share of the vote was a prime factor in the ANC losing its majority for the first time since the end of apartheid in 1994 in an historic result for South Africa, leading to the formation of a multi-party coalition government.
