ANCYL President Julius Malema at Library Gardens opposite Luthuli House. Photo: Dumisani Dube ANCYL President Julius Malema at Library Gardens opposite Luthuli House. Photo: Dumisani Dube
ANC Youth League provincial leaders have thumbed their noses at the ANC after its rebuke over the chaos outside Luthuli House last week, saying the party should charge all provinces and not individuals – with some warning that they have the numbers on their side.
This follows the hard line taken by the ANC’s national working committee (NWC) after its regular meeting on Monday.
The NWC, of which youth league president Julius Malema is a member, said it “condemned the protest and its organisers for exposing the organisation negatively”.
“The meeting concluded that such behaviour should not be tolerated in the organisation and should be condemned unconditionally,” ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said. He called for action to be taken against those implicated in violence and criminality.
The DA filed a complaint of inciting public violence against the youth league’s Limpopo secretary, Jacob Lebogo, this week after reports said he had been the main instigator of the “show of support” for league leaders facing disciplinary hearings.
But on Tuesday, two provincial youth league leaders, a youth league national executive committee (NEC) member and a provincial ANC leader said the ANC could do what it liked, but the high-stakes political battle would be settled at the party’s elective conference in Mangaung next year.
“We are waiting for them to charge us, we are expecting to be charged,” said ANCYL Northern Cape chairman Shadrack Tlhaole.
Over the past two weeks a number of youth league leaders, MPs and ANC leaders from across the country have said that the league holds the balance of numbers in the branches, with many youth league members serving on the ANC’s provincial executive committees.
“They can do what they like, disband the national leadership, disband the provinces, but our people are in the branches. Come Mangaung, we’ll take them out,” said a youth league leader.
The ANC’s national disciplinary committee said on Tuesday it had decided to move Malema’s hearing, which resumes on Sunday, to another venue. This reverses the league’s only victory at the hearings, in which they saw off an earlier attempt to move the hearings.
The national disciplinary committee rejected Malema’s arguments for the charges to be dropped and for three members of the committee to recuse themselves.
The chairman of the national disciplinary committee, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Derek Hanekom, said that in deciding to change the venue, the committee had taken a number of factors into account. These included the implications for businesses in the Joburg CBD and a threat by a firm of lawyers to seek a court order preventing the hearings from being held at Luthuli House on weekdays.
The ANC has charged the league’s entire leadership.
There was confrontation outside the ANC’s headquarters on day one of the hearings last Tuesday, when provincial structures bused in thousands of supporters.
Malema condemned the disorder, as did the ANC and its alliance partners, among others.
On Monday, the NWC added its voice to the outcry.
“The meeting condemned the burning of the T-shirt bearing the president’s face and the flag of the ANC,” said Mantashe. “This was viewed as totally un-ANC and a breach of everything the ANC stands for.”
But ANC insiders, an ANC leader and analysts said the statement should not be taken at face value, as Malema enjoyed support from NWC members.
“You must know four of the top six members did not want to take this route; they wanted a political solution. With the NWC there were a number of supporters and they are calculating everything,” said an ANC leader.
“If they decided now, Zuma could himself fall victim to the NEC, who can call him and say you must be recalled.”
However, analyst Professor Steven Friedman said it was clear that Malema was losing some ground. In the light of the position he found himself in, many of his backers might feel he was no longer of use to them, said Friedman.
Malema faces charges of bringing the ANC into disrepute and sowing division in the party. He also faces a charge in connection with his comment that whites are criminals, and another relating to the alleged storming of a meeting of the ANC’s top six officials with the youth league deputy, Ronald Lamola, secretary-general Sindiso Magaqa, deputy secretary-general Kenetswe Mosenogi and treasurer general Pule Mabe.
Hawks spokesman McIntosh Polela said this week the investigation into charges of fraud and corruption brought against Malema by civil society group AfriForum was making progress.
The public protector is investigating Malema’s financial dealings relating to a company with which he has links, On-Point Engineering.
Sars is understood to be performing a lifestyle audit of the youth leader. But Sars spokesman Adrian Lackay said he couldn’t confirm or deny this, as by law he was unable to comment on the private financial affairs of any individual.
Malema and his co-accused are to face the disciplinary committee on Sunday, a day before the league’s birthday bash on September 12.
The party would go ahead, youth league members said. - Political Bureau