Emboldened by his election to the ANC's Limpopo provincial executive committee and the return of his ally Cassel Mathale as provincial chairman, Julius Malema has warned the ruling party's leadership to open the succession debate or it "will get messy". Emboldened by his election to the ANC's Limpopo provincial executive committee and the return of his ally Cassel Mathale as provincial chairman, Julius Malema has warned the ruling party's leadership to open the succession debate or it "will get messy".
Emboldened by his election to the ANC’s Limpopo provincial executive committee and the return of his ally Cassel Mathale as provincial chairman, Julius Malema has warned the ruling party’s leadership to open the succession debate or it “will get messy”.
He made the call at a closed session a few minutes after the announcement of his election as one of 20 additional members of the provincial executive. He was 17th on the list.
“We are calling on the national leadership to open the debate on leadership, towards the ANC’s centenary. It’s already being discussed. It will get messy if the ANC is not involved in guiding the debate,” he said yesterday.
The ANC must give itself the opportunity to “lead the discussions” because people, even those not members of the party, were talking about it.
Responding to Malema’s call, Mathale said: “That couldn’t be more clear.”
There was a strong sense among Mathale’s supporters that the conference should pass a resolution in support of a change of leadership at the ANC’s elective conference in Mangaung next December.
However, despite discussions and proposals by delegates, no such resolution was passed.
Malema also suggested that the ANC’s constitution be amended to provide for rules of engagement in the leadership succession debate.
The ANC Youth League leader, who is appealing against his suspension from the ANC, was elected to the province’s 25-member executive committee.
Yesterday, the conference backed Malema’s call for a political solution to the tiff between the youth league leaders and the ANC.
This followed the decision by the ANC’s disciplinary committee to suspend Malema for five years and league spokesman Floyd Shivambu for three. The other top four leaders received suspended sentences.
Other resolutions passed included support for the nationalisation of mines and a commitment to building a united ANC.
Mathale’s camp failed to push through a resolution calling for a reversal of the cabinet’s decision to place five Limpopo departments under national government administration. But the conference passed a resolution that a policy framework be developed to guide the use of Section 100 of the constitution, which authorises intervention by the national government in the running of provincial governments.
ANC provincial spokesman and Finance MEC David Masondo has described the intervention as an attempt to “humiliate and deal with people perceived to be unsupportive of the national leadership, and therefore it’s a political tactic to dislodge them”.
National and provincial politicians “with the highest appetite for organisational power were presenting themselves as messiahs to extricate Limpopo from its overdraft”, which was not a result of corruption. “Yet many of them, including some in the national cabinet, politically presided over the rise of this overdraft.” - Political Bureau