FORMER South African President Jacob Zuma was set to face a disciplinary hearing with the African National Congress party today, after campaigning against the organisation he once led as head of a new political party in national elections in May.

The hearing could lead to Mr Zuma being expelled from the ANC, which he joined in the late 1950s when it was a liberation movement fighting against the racist apartheid system of white minority rule.

Mr Zuma was forced to step down as South African president in 2018 amid allegations of corruption and 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.

Mr 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 elections. 

While Mr Zuma said that he would retain his ANC membership despite becoming the leader of the MK Party, the ANC suspended him in January saying  he had attacked its integrity.

The 14 per cent share of the vote won by Mr Zuma’s MK Party on May 29 was a prime factor in the ANC losing its majority for the first time since the end of apartheid in 1994.