Political analyst Susan Booysen has reported that former African National Congress (ANC) president and current Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) party leader Jacob Zuma has received a lot of media attention at a disciplinary hearing scheduled by the ruling party. He says it will attract attention.
Mr Zuma is scheduled to appear before a disciplinary committee at Luthuli House next Tuesday. He faces two charges of violating the ANC constitution.
This comes as South Africa prepares for general elections later this month.
Booysen elaborates. “Former President Zuma is going to get a lot of mileage, do a lot of media interviews and get exposure from now on. And it's really a matter of faction. And that kind of narrative that he's actually the owner of the real ANC and the holder of the values and so on.
Meanwhile, the ANC's Galema Motlanthe says Zuma has made his own choices and written his own history as a politician and leader of the organization.
Mr Motlanthe defended the timing of the ruling party's disciplinary action against Mr Zuma. Motlanthe is campaigning for the ANC in Soweto.
The ANC had previously indicated that there was no need to take action against the former leader as he had left the organization voluntarily. This is despite Mr Zuma insisting he remains part of the ruling party.
Motlanthe says the organization needed to ensure it was fair to former ANC leaders.
“Organizations must ensure that appropriate procedures are followed as there are two criteria for assessing fairness in any case of breach of discipline: first, there is a substantive case against the individual; The second question is whether you followed a fair procedure.Procedural fairness is therefore one of the tests of being fair and just to everyone you interact with. ”
