Malema rallies league
INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS
ANCYL leader Julius Malema. Photo: Bongiwe Mchunu
Youth League leaders began arriving in Joburg on Friday night to plan how to respond to its most serious crisis ever.
None of them would speak on the record. The agenda though, is believed to be how the league reacts to the unprecedented suspension of its national executive this week.
On Thursday, its firebrand president Julius Malema was politically neutered when the party’s national disciplinary committee suspended him from all office and membership of either the ANC or youth league for the next five years.
The Saturday Star understands Malema and the other four sanctioned leaders will lead the discussions at Luthuli House, with his lawyers on standby to formally file an appeal, should this be the route Malema and the league opt for.
Malema also faces an ongoing investigation into his financial affairs by the police’s elite Hawks unit and the anti-corruption task team, which includes the Special Investigating Unit and the Receiver of Revenue. This is over allegations that he amassed millions of rands influencing the awarding of government tenders.
If there is enough evidence, he could be criminally charged.
He can expect no support from ordinary South Africans, though. ON Friday a TNS survey found 70 percent of respondents agreed the ANC’s verdict was justified. On Thursday night, in a telling display, hundreds of youngsters celebrated Malema’s plight in his home province of Limpopo.
On Friday, NEC members set off for Joburg for what will be a key meeting for the youth league, not just on the question of appeals, but its status as an organisation, following Thursday’s ruling that described it as neither independent nor autonomous from the ANC mother body.
“We are discussing crucial issues,” was all youth league spokeswoman Magdalene Moonsamy would say, while secretary-general Sindiso Magaqa simply said, “We are not talking anything.”
Malema on Thursday threw down the gauntlet and vowed to fight any moves to “destroy” the youth league.
“When you throw us from the ANC, you are throwing us out of our home and that cannot be left unchallenged,” he told supporters in Polokwane, where he wrote a Unisa exam as the national disciplinary committee delivered its verdict.
On Friday, several provincial youth league leaders insisted the verdict must be appealed against, with some saying the disciplinary process had been flawed from the start.
Provincial leaders are expected to back Malema’s appeal. His sanction will take effect only once the appeals process is exhausted and the original sanction upheld.
But there did not appear to be any suggestion that the league would opt for mass rallies and public disobedience on the scale that rocked the Joburg CBD when Malema and his executive first appeared at Luthuli House, the ANC headquarters, and which was followed by a disciplined and organised “march for economic freedom” from Joburg to Pretoria a fortnight ago.
The ANC on Friday described Malema’s “gloves are off” comments as “unfortunate”.
Many senior ANC members have been delighted by the verdict, hoping that it will send a message to all members in the party structures, after what they felt was appalling lack of discipline by Malema’s supporters who burnt the ANC flag and T-shirts bearing President Jacob Zuma’s picture, right opposite Luthuli House.
Malema received a further rebuke when Planning Minister Trevor Manuel released his national development plan.
Painting a picture of how the country could create 11 million new jobs by 2030, Manuel warned that this couldn’t be done where there was uncertainty over ownership, particularly of the mines and the allocation of mineral rights. Malema has been vocal in calls for their nationalisation.
NPC deputy chairman Cyril Ramaphosa said certainty on property rights was essential.
Meanwhile, political analysts have cautioned that the verdict may still deepen divisions in the ruling party as the appeals process plays out.
In the long term, this could foster a culture of silence, commentators warned. - Political Bureau
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