Former president challenges expulsion from the ANC
JOHANNESBURG - Former President Jacob Zuma is once again taking his predecessor Cyril Ramaphosa and the ANC to court.
This time he wants the court to declare his expulsion from the party unlawful and unconstitutional.
Zuma's timed his legal action to coincide with the ANC's 70th anniversary of the Freedom Charter.
In his papers submitted before the High Court in Johannesburg, the former President argues that rule 25.17.42, which the party used to expel him are inconsistent with the Constitution.
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'Something deeper at play' Rather than Whitfield's jaunt to the US being the reason he was sacked, Steenhuisen suggested there was 'something even deeper at play here'. According to Steenhuisen, Whitfield had 'opposed an attempt to make suspect appointments' and was 'standing in the way of the looting' that would follow Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau's contentious R100-billion transformation fund, which was published for public comment earlier this year. 'All of this in a department mired in corruption allegations involving the tender for the National Lottery,' added Steenhuisen. 'Given this flagrant double standard, one is left with no choice but to conclude that hardworking DA members of the executive are now being fired for fighting corruption, not for committing corruption,' said Steenhuisen. 'I treated silence as consent' Daily Maverick contacted Whitfield with queries, but had not received a response by the time of publication. However, speaking to John Perlman on 702 on Thursday evening, Whitfield maintained that Ramaphosa gave no reason for his axing. 'The trip was obviously a DA trip. I had written to the President 10 days prior to departure to comply with the requirement to request leave to travel abroad, and after nine days of waiting, we needed to book a flight, and I felt that I had waited reasonably long enough and [had] followed up every day… with the Presidency and received no response other than they had acknowledged receipt,' he said. 'I assumed that because I went to the United States without the expressed permission of the President in spite of the fact that he had the letter for 10 days — I have it on good authority that he was very aware of the letter — chose not to reply to the letter, either in the affirmative or the negative, and I treated silence as consent,' he added. Daily Maverick requested comment from Magwenya, but had not received a response by the time of publication. DM
