JOHANNESBURG

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said Monday that he noted an announcement made by his predecessor Jacob Zuma to withdraw his support for the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party in next year’s elections. 

Former President Jacob Zuma announced Saturday that he will not vote for the ANC, which he once led and has been a member of for over 60 years.

“After much reflection, it truly saddens me that the ANC of today is not the once great movement that we loved and were prepared to lay down our lives for," Zuma, 81, told reporters on the outskirts of Johannesburg.

Zuma, who served as leader of the ruling ANC and the country for nearly a decade, said he had been asked by some ANC leaders if he would campaign for the party in next year’s elections.

“I have decided that I cannot and will not campaign for the ANC of Ramaphosa in 2024," he said.

Responding to a reporter’s question about Zuma’s comments, Ramaphosa said: “Everyone in our country is free to express themselves in relation to who they will vote for and why they will vote for them, and we have noted what former President Jacob Zuma has announced,” he said during a media briefing discussing the situation in Palestine.

Zuma said his conscience will not allow him to pretend that Ramaphosa’s ANC is the ANC of late founding father Nelson Mandela or the late Oliver Tambo or Albert John Luthuli, who once led the party.

“The ANC is being led by some leaders who are behaving in a manner that does not reflect the true character of the organization that liberated South Africans from apartheid," he said.

“When I was president of the ANC, dissenting voices were never sided (sidelined) as in the present, even the ‘Zuma must fall’ brigade were free to express themselves.”

He claimed dissenting voices are being suppressed under Ramaphosa.

Zuma also claimed the ANC under Ramaphosa is a proxy of white monopoly capital, alleging that the party has been infiltrated by its enemies. Now, he said, South Africans must save the ANC revolution from its enemies.

“It would be a betrayal to campaign for the ANC of Ramaphosa. It is not the ANC that I joined and went to jail for,” he said, referring to the apartheid era.

Ramaphosa did not respond to personal attacks against him, but said: “We all listened to that announcement, and we have noted what he has said, what he has announced, and that is how we are prepared to go in this point in time,” he said.

Zuma announced that in 2024, he will vote for the Umkhonto We Sizwe (MK) party, which means “Spear of the Nation,” but insisted he will remain an ANC member.

In July 2021, Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in jail for contempt of court for refusing to testify before a judicial commission investigating corruption during his nearly decade-long presidency. His arrest led to widespread unrest and looting, claiming hundreds of lives. He still enjoys support in some parts of the country.