JACOB ZUMA should be expelled from the African National Congress (ANC) for lending his support to a new political formation, the leader of the country’s Young Communist League said this weekend.

Mzwandile Thakhudi made the call as he addressed the annual commemoration of former South African Communist Party (SACP) general secretary and anti-apartheid hero Joe Slovo, in Soweto’s Avalon Cemetery.

Mr Zuma, who served as South Africa’s president from 2009 to 2018, announced last month that he intends to vote for the newly formed  uMkhonto we Sizwe party in this year’s election. The party is named after the armed wing of the ANC, whose veterans have taken offence at the use of the name.

But the former president has said he intends to remain an ANC member for life.

Speaking at the commemoration event, SACP general secretary Solly Mapaila addressed his party’s past support for the former president. The SACP, which is part of South Africa’s ruling Tripartite Alliance, later broke with Mr Zuma as he became increasingly implicated in corruption scandals, particularly over the “state capture” of the country by the billionaire Gupta brothers.

“We fought for him as the Communist Party to be president when we thought wrong things were being done against him,” Mr Mapaila said, going on to discuss how Mr Zuma had failed to deliver on any of the priorities he agreed with the Communist leadership. “There were five priorities, and he left office without achieving any of them.

“We ended up fighting with him when he wanted to sell this country to a group of Indian boys, the Gupta brothers. They corrupted and captured our state system.”

Mr Zuma was since sentenced to imprisonment on corruption charges, but was granted remission of his jail time last August.

Mr Thakhudi said: “We lastly want to call on the ANC to expel Mr Zuma. Mr Zuma is an opportunist and he must be exposed for what he is.”

Cosatu second deputy president Zingiswa Losi condemned the “Mickey Mouse politics” of the new formation, while uMkhonto weSizwe Liberation War Veterans’ national convener Dan Hato said: “Those who want to distort the history of this country because the emperor has been found naked, they must think twice. We are not going to be swayed by people who think everything is about themselves.”

SACP chair Blade Nzimande, who is also South Africa’s Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, said: “Comrade Mao used to have a very nice saying. If you were a revolutionary last month, and you continued being a revolutionary last week, and you were a revolutionary even yesterday, but if today you were a counter-revolutionary, you are a counter-revolutionary.”