* Youth League rebel makes rare public apology
* Rejects corruption charges, blasts media
JOHANNESBURG, March 11 (Reuters) – South Africa’s ANC
youth rebel Julius Malema pleaded on Sunday for the ruling party
not to expel him and made a rare public apology to the
movement’s senior leadership which he has frequently criticised
as too moderate in their policies.
Malema, 31, confirmed he would appeal against the African
National Congress (ANC) decision last month to expel him on
charges of sowing divisions within its ranks, which he denies.
Striking an unusually contrite figure in an interview
broadcast on state TV, the suspended ANC Youth League leader
insisted he had done nothing wrong by calling for
nationalisation of mines and the seizure of white-owned land in
South Africa, the world’s biggest producer of platinum.
One of the ANC’s most dramatic orators, his calls for a
radical transformation of Africa’s biggest economy had resonated
with poor blacks. He frequently mocked President Jacob Zuma.
But in an interview on the State of Our Nation programme
shown live by state broadcaster SABC, he asked to be allowed to
stay on in the ANC, saying membership was “my life” and that he
had joined the anti-apartheid movement at the age of nine.
“Please leave me with a card because the imagination of
being outside the ANC is too scary. I love the ANC, I don’t have
anything except the ANC,” he said.
“I want to apologise to the leadership of the ANC for
anything they think I’ve done wrong … I did not do it
deliberately,” said Malema, wearing his traditional black beret
and a yellow T-shirt bearing the portrait of anti-apartheid icon
Nelson Mandela.
Continued…
