The African National Congress (ANC) is conducting a witch-hunt against MPs who supported the vote of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma and turning a blind eye to his reckless actions, according to the South African Communist Party.

The tripartite alliance partner maintains that the ANC was inconsistent in disciplining members, as it has failed to hold Zuma accountable for state capture and his March 30 Cabinet reshuffle, it said in a statement on Wednesday.

The SACP was responding to the ANC national working committee’s decision on Monday to subject at least three MPs who supported the vote of no confidence, to a disciplinary hearing.

SACP acting spokesperson Mhlekwa Nxumalo described it as “factional discipline”. Were it not for this, he said the party would long ago have acted against the rot of state capture and those people in the ANC who were responsible for it.

Nxumalo claimed while the country was plunged into a technical recession because of Zuma’s decisions, his friends the Guptas were smiling all the way to the bank. One of the three Gupta brothers had become a top black billionaire.

Atul Gupta, trumped mining mogul Patrice Motsepe, to be the seventh wealthiest South African and the top earning black businessman, according to the Business Times Rich List 2016 by the Sunday Times.

'Gupta-captured networks'

“It is inconceivable that this happened without the relationship, and associated with it, funds from developmental finance institutions of the state, tenders from state-owned entities and decisions made in government and the public sector by the Gupta-captured network of officials, public office bearers and executives,” Nxumalo said.

ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe on Tuesday denied that the party was embarking on a witch-hunt. He said they were going after MPs who had publicly admitted to voting for Zuma to go. He refused to name the three.

Speculation was that it could be outspoken former ministers Pravin Gordhan and Derek Hanekom. Both were fired during Zuma’s Cabinet reshuffle. Mondli Gungubele and Makhosi Khoza were the other two likely targets. Both had called for Zuma to step down.

Mantashe accused journalist of “treachery” when he was pressed on the apparent lack of consistency in the ANC’s handling of Zuma and its MPs who refused to toe the party line.

The Constitutional Court ruled in March 2016 that Zuma violated his oath of office and the Constitution when he failed to repay some of the money spent on so-called security upgrades to his Nkandla homestead.

"What you are saying is that because there are issues with the president, the ANC must cease to exist," Mantashe said.

ANC NEC member Mathole Motshekga criticised the party for deciding to discipline its MPs and accused it of “victimising" the victims of a corrupt state.

“The ANC members are victims of a corrupt state and cannot be accused by the governing party and its government,” Motshekga told News24. He called for a special national executive committee meeting to discuss the matter.