Zuma says there are no double standards

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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President Jacob Zuma said on Monday in an interview that the ANC did not have double standards in disciplining its members. Zuma was asked why the African National Congress did not take any measures against Jackson Mthembu who is its spokesperson, when he was under arrest for drunken driving, but did act against former ANC Youth League president Julius Malema on a range of charges.

Zuma said, “If you take Jackson [Mthembu], he did not violate the ANC rules, he violated what you call public kind of rule, and the law enforcement dealt with that issue,” and asked, “Why should the ANC punish him again because that was dealt with in terms of the laws of the country?”

Mthembu was in prison on 11 March 2010, for driving drunk on the N2 in Cape Town. He was also fined R12 000, of which R6000 was floated for five years. In addition to that, he was fined R500 for driving in a bus lane.

Zuma denied that the ANC treated some issues differently from others. He said, “It looks at the gravity of the issue and whatever consideration put there are structures that deal with these matters… and it has been very fair.”

Zuma did not agree that the action was taken against Malema only after he insulted Zuma, and not after he insulted former president Thabo Mbeki before the Polokwane conference. In August, 2011, Malema was charged with sowing division and bringing the party into disregard, partly relating to comments about effecting government change in Botswana and for comparing Zuma critically to former president Mbeki. Malema was then barred from the ANC.