The suspension of South Africa's former president comes ahead of the country's general elections.
South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) has suspended former president Jacob Zuma, weeks after he backed another party ahead of this year's general election.
“Zuma and others who conflict with our values and principles will find themselves outside the African National Congress,” ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said on Monday.
The widely expected result is seen as a sign of disunity in the movement ahead of the general election, in which the long-dominant ANC is expected to lose ground.
Zuma was democratic South Africa's fourth president, serving from 2009 to 2018, but was forced out of office amid allegations of corruption, and he defected from the party he once led.
In December, he announced that he would campaign for a new party called uMkhonto We Sizwe (MK), or Spear of the Nation, named after the ANC's former armed wing during the anti-apartheid struggle.
As well as suspending Zuma, Mbalula said the ANC could appeal to the Electoral Tribunal to cancel the new party's registration and mount a trademark challenge to get the name back.
“The creation of the MK Party was not a coincidence,” Mbalula declared after a meeting of the party's national executive committee, which was attended by leader Cyril Ramaphosa.
It was a deliberate attempt to use the proud history of armed struggle against the apartheid regime to give credibility to a blatantly counter-revolutionary agenda.
According to the South African Broadcasting Corporation ReportZuma has 48 hours to respond to the suspension.
