THE AFRICAN National Congress has confirmed it is considering charges against ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema over his recent controversial comments.
Mr Malema (29) and the youth league’s working committee met ANC leaders, including South African president Jacob Zuma, on Monday to discuss the charges, which relate to public outbursts that have undermined the ruling party. The league is said to have argued that its leader could not be charged over his recent conduct by the ANC as he was representing the organisation, which was autonomous from the ruling party.
Among other things, Mr Malema initially defied Mr Zuma’s warning to stop making inflammatory comments in the wake of the murder of white supremacist Eugene Terre’Blanche.
He also undermined the ANC president’s mediation efforts in Zimbabwe’s powersharing deal, by publicly choosing to support Zanu- PF over its coalition partner, the Movement for Democratic Change.
Addressing the media yesterday in Johannesburg, deputy secretary general Thandi Modise said: “The ANC has preferred charges against the ANC Youth League president, comrade Julius Malema,” but she insisted it was premature to say what they entailed.
Ms Modise added that Mr Malema had apologised at the meeting about verbally abusing a BBC journalist at a press conference recently and the ANC was now taking the submission made by the youth league on Monday under consideration.
“We would like to restate that issues of discipline in the ANC belong to the structure of the ANC and are not matters for the public and the media,” she added.
It is understood the disciplinary hearing has been scheduled to take place early next month. If he is found to have brought the ANC into disrepute, Mr Malema could be suspended or even expelled from the ruling party he joined as a 10-year-old.
Since newspapers revealed last Sunday that Mr Malema had landed in hot water with the ANC’s top brass, speculation surrounding whether he would be disciplined or not has been rife.
Some analysts have said a decision by the ANC disciplinary committee not to formalise the charges against Mr Malema could seriously undermine Mr Zuma’s position as party president and would show how divided the ruling party is.
Just under two weeks ago Mr Zuma spoke out strongly against the youth league leader’s utterances, which he called “alien” to the ANC.