Former government spokesperson Mzwanele Manyi on Wednesday announced that he was ditching the African National Congress (ANC) and was forming a new political home, the African Transformation Movement (ATM).

Manyi said his decision to join the new kid on the block was because the ruling ANC had gone against its conference resolutions to amend section 25 of the Constitution in order to expropriate land and was unwilling to change certain laws in the country like the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act that would be to the benefit of the black population.

Last month, public works minister Thulas Nxesi gazetted the draft Expropriation Bill for public comment amid a parliamentary process to amend section 25 of the Constitution following nationwide public consultation. 

"This is a demonstration of unwillingness to actually execute on the conference resolutions. So then you ask yourself where are we if you are going to have the highest-decision body of the ANC making decisions, but when those decisions must be implemented they get sabotaged by the ANC itself," Manyi said.

"I have come to the conclusion that, indeed, the ANC is tired, that the ANC is fatigued. The ANC has reached a point of saturation, the ANC has lost its hegemony, the ANC has lost its moral compass. The ANC is now actually actively reversing our gains. If the truth be told, actually the ANC is exhibiting all the signs of being captured by imperialist forces. The ANC is trapped and unable to liberate itself from the claws of its captors, and therefore should no longer be trusted the task of liberating our people."

On Tuesday, one of the organisations Manyi founded, the Progressive Professionals Forum, confirmed that “it had received a resignation from him with immediate effect following his announcement that he intends to establish a new political home.

Manyi, who also bought the now defunct media houses from the Gupta family, also apologised to his former employees for losing their jobs at TV station ANN7 and The New Age newspaper (later Afroworld View), but blamed pay-TV station Multichoice for their woes. 

"I want to apologise to all employees of ANN7/AfroWorld View whose children were kicked out of schools because of Multichoice. If they had given us reasons it would have been better; but they just decided to shut us down the channel and government did nothing," Manyi said.