Former ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule axed from the party

Former ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule has been expelled from the party. 

His expulsion comes after the ANC national disciplinary committee (NDC) found him guilty of contravening the ANC constitution by failing to withdraw and apologise for his decision to suspend party president Cyril Ramaphosa in May 2021. 

According to the ANC, the NDC met to deliberate on charges preferred against Magashule. 

“The NDC found comrade Ace Magashule guilty of contravening Rules 25.17.12, 25.17.3, 12.1 and 12.2.20 of the ANC constitution. After a guilty verdict by the NDC, comrade Ace Magashule was allowed to show cause why he should not be expelled from the ANC. Upon the lapse of seven [7] days, the NDC had not received any representations to that effect,” the statement reads. 

“Consequently, the NDC confirmed the expulsion of comrade Ace Magashule from the ANC as a final sanction.” 

Speaking to Sowetan’s sister publication TimesLIVE at the beginning of June, sources close to Magashule revealed that he was planning to appeal the findings of the NDC with the ANC’s national disciplinary committee of appeals, where he will argue he had never been served with summons and never received communication from NDC for him to appear before it.  

The disciplinary processes to dismiss Magashule from the party began in November 2021, about six months after Magashule’s failure to apologise and retract his suspension of Ramaphosa.

There were then delays which included allowing Magashule to exhaust all the legal processes related to the case, which were dismissed by the high court, the Supreme Court of Appeal and the Constitutional Court between May 2021 and August 2022. 

The matter was then set for January 19 and was delayed until May 15 and the final verdict was made on Monday, June 12.