Johannesburg - The African National Congress should discipline President Jacob Zuma
for bringing the party into disrepute, Human Settlements 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 head of state until a 2019 parliamentary
election.
Sisulu, a veteran cabinet minister, 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.
“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 offence."
Spokesmen 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-criticised 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, labelling the ruling party liberation movement "alien and corrupt".
Nkosozana Dlamini-Zuma, former chair of the African Union, and Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa are
viewed as the frontrunners to take over as ANC leader.
Dlamini-Zuma has the support of Zuma's powerful faction
within the ANC while unionist-turned-business tycoon Ramaphosa
is more popular with investors.