INLSA
Julius Malema
Michelle Pietersen and Leanne Jansen
WHILE Julius Malema’s hold on power appears to be unravelling fast as a bitter succession battle rages, the ANC Youth League leader set out to win the hearts of minority communities in Pietermaritzburg last night.
Following a meeting with members of the SA Minority Rights Equality Movement, not only was consensus reached on withdrawing criminal charges they had laid against him for the use of a racial slur, the movement also found in Malema a sympathetic ear.
Having felt that a phone conversation with the movement’s leadership would not suffice, Malema made the trip to personally bury the hatchet. This was after the league had apologised for the slur in October.
Malema, accompanied by league spokesman Floyd Shivambu, was quickly ushered into a building in Chief Albert Luthuli Street (Commercial Road), while a large media contingent waited outside.
When he emerged, Malema answered a few questions before being shepherded into his Mercedes-Benz.
“We are all Africans,” he said, acknowledging that Indians had been an “important constituency in our struggle”.
The youth league is due to respond today to the heavy blow it received from the ANC’s national disciplinary committee last week.
Malema is said to be in a state of paranoia, while his lieutenant, Shivambu, is said to be intensifying divisions by secretly campaigning for his preferred leader – deputy president Ronald Lamola – to take over when Malema’s reign ends. Many league members and leaders feel this will happen sooner rather than later.
“Julius is vulnerable and doesn’t know who to trust,” said one ANC source.
Sharp divisions were exposed when the ANC announced that the entire league leadership was guilty of contravening the party’s constitution. The announcement that Malema was suspended for five years and Shivambu for three years sparked a frenzy among youth leaders, who moved to secure their positions in the event Malema’s appeal fails.
While the league was expected to show a united front when it officially announces its fight-back campaign, the young lions were not all convinced Malema was worth the fight. Following its emergency national executive meeting at the weekend, the league will publicly rally behind Malema.
But some have privately said Malema and his co-accused should not appeal, and that Malema should be “sacrificed” for the sake of the organisation.
One national executive meeting member said Malema’s attempt to save his political skin was a “dead horse giving its last kick”.
It appeared that Lamola and league treasurer Pule Mabe would face off for the top job.
Shivambu, ANC insiders have said, was campaigning against Mabe to propel Lamola to the top.
Shivambu’s ambition to become league secretary-general was foiled earlier this year when delegates elected Sindiso Magaqa instead.
Magaqa was sanctioned by the ANC’s national disciplinary committee for disparaging remarks he made about Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba, and was supposed to publicly apologise to the minister within five days of the ruling. But this has not happened because he intends to appeal.
Shivambu’s campaign against Mabe, a youth league source said, involved casting aspersions on his integrity in the media and portraying him in the eyes of the branches – who, in the event that the fight comes down to a special elective conference, will hold the key to the league throne – as “power-hungry”.
But an ANC source said Lamola was a double agent who pretended to support Malema, and by extension pretended that he was against President Jacob Zuma, while he was known in his home province of Mpumalanga to be backing Zuma for a second term. However, Lamola said he was a national leader and did not play on provincial political fields. He laughed off suggestions that he was a double agent.
Mabe is seen by most members as Malema’s logical replacement because of his political seniority over Lamola. Yesterday, Lamola said there was no secret campaign to position himself as heir-apparent.
However, the youth league’s constitution dictates that, as deputy, he will act in the position of youth leader if the leader is unable to do so.
