By SAPA

AMUKELANI CHAUKE

Julius Malema’s hopes of making a political comeback have been boosted by the ANC Youth League’s drama

Pule Mabe, the league’s treasurer-general, got the boot on Saturday for allegedly misusing funds. This sparked an altercation at a meeting of the league’s national executive committee and metro police were called in.

Mabe, a member of the anti-Malema faction in the divided youth league, has reportedly been campaigning behind the scenes to succeed him as president. His supporters claimed that the proceedings that culminated in Mabe’s suspension were irregular.

The frontrunner for the top job is the league’s deputy president, Ronald Lamola, a staunch Malema supporter, who is acting as president.

The league is expected to announce Mabe’s suspension formally today and to set a date for an urgent meeting of its national general council. The meeting is expected to decide whether to try to save Malema through a ”political solution” or to draw up guidelines for a process to elect his successor.

The Times understands that the Malema faction’s strategy is to get the league top brass to ask the ANC executive to put his expulsion and suspension on the agenda for the party’s policy conference in Midrand next month.

The league – which has refused to recognise Malema’s expulsion – has been campaigning to have President Jacob Zuma replaced as ANC president by his deputy, Kgalema Motlanthe, at the party’s elective conference in Mangaung in December.

“They want the Malema [disciplinary] issue to be raised [at the policy conference],” said a source yesterday. “They continue to defy the ruling [on Malema of the disciplinary committee] because they are of the view that the disciplinary committee is a structure of the ANC, and that the [league’s] leaders can be removed only by a structure that elected them to power.

“So the intention is to approach the ANC national executive committee to intervene, and we will propose a motion to have this issue [Malema’s expulsion] included on the [policy conference] agenda.”

With Mabe suspended, Malema’s faction, under Lamola, will have the edge when the league convenes its national general council meeting.

The source said a league resolution to have Malema’s situation discussed at the ANC policy conference would be a significant victory for him.

“The ANC branches could make a recommendation for the elective conference in Mangaung to review the sentences,” he added.

Insiders who were at the league’s executive committee meeting at Johannesburg’s Reef Hotel at the weekend said it was a “blood for blood” session – from which Mabe was removed.

An SMS circulated yesterday by a league executive member revealed that Malema’s allies at the meeting had tried to vote that Mabe be suspended but failed because they were outnumbered.

They are then said to have departed from normal procedure by asking ex officio members of the league – provincial chairmen and secretaries – to vote.

This, according to insiders, might be a contravention of the league’s constitution.

As a result, 15 officials who were opposed to Mabe’s suspension, realising they would be outnumbered, abstained from voting.

The rest voted for Mabe to be suspended.

“He . refused to go and there were exchanges and near blows. [The Johannesburg] metro police had to be called in,” the SMS read.

Metro police spokesman Wayne Minnaar could not confirm this yesterday.

League spokesman Magdalene Moonsamy refused to comment, and said all executive committee matters would be dealt with at a press conference this morning.

The ANC’s national disciplinary committee expelled Malema for bringing the party into disrepute and for sowing division with his remark that the league would organise opposition parties in Botswana to help them overthrow President Ian Khama.

Malema’s appeal against the expulsion was dismissed last month.

Two of his lieutenants, league spokesman Floyd Shivambu and secretary-general Sindiso Magaqa, have been given lengthy suspensions.

The ANC disciplinary committee also summarily suspended Malema after he called Zuma a dictator during a public lecture last month.

tic suspension of a key opponent of its expelled president.

BY Obakeng Maje

ANC NDCA last night confirmed the expulsion of Julius Malema. The former ANC Youth League leader launched an appeal against his expulsion posed by ANC NDC led by Haenekom.

He was charged with bringing the party into disrepute and sowing divisions within the organisation. The question is what next for the former youth firebrand and is this the beginning of the end of Malema’s political career.

Most political analysts believe he might be expelled,but that does not necessary mark the end of his political career.

Malema believed that he was militant and radical,but it really shows that militancy without discipline is perilous.

CHARGES AGAINST ALL THREE!!!

It said league spokesperson Floyd Shivambu has been suspended for three years while its secretary general Sindiso Magaqa has been suspended for one year.

The panel said the reasons for its decision were as follows:

-Malema refused to accept the authority of the ANC’s disciplinary process.

-The trio made various claims and innuendos in their arguments which showed they have no respect for the party.

-The trio had made a public inference that President Jacob Zuma somehow controlled the disciplinary panels.

-Magaqa’s decision to withdraw his appeal against his sentence was designed to frustrate the process and that’s why a harsher sentence was imposed upon him.

Malema’s big decision now is whether to take legal; or political action.

REACTION

Both the ANC and Cosatu have welcomed the decision by the party’s appeals panel to expel Julius Malema.

The party’s Jackson Mthembu said it was a painful decision for the party.

Our crew tried to get response from ANCYL, but our attempt was futile.

“The expulsion of anybody from the party is painful. But this decision was necessary.”

Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said it was an important process.

“We have to respect the internal process and decisions made by the ANC appeals panel.”

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BY Catherine Rice

Suspended ANC Youth League (ANCYL) leader Julius Malema and spokesman Floyd Shivambu have until the end of Tuesday to file responding papers in a defamation case against them.

Former Western Cape ANC Youth League leader Andile Lili is the only respondent to have filed documents.

The case dates back to 2010, when they made defamatory remarks about Western Cape Premier Helen Zille.

She is suing them and the ANCYL for R1.4 million.

During and after the 2009 general elections, the trio called Zille a racist little girl and accusing her of having extramarital relations with her all-male Cabinet.

Earlier in April, Zille approached the Western Cape High Court in Cape Town to get an order compelling the three to file papers.

Judge Nathan Erasmus granted the order.

Lili has responded and denied the comments were defamatory.

The Premier’s lawyers will be able to request a default judgment if the other two respondents do not meet the deadline.

Meanwhile, Shivambu and Malema are also facing other battles after they were suspended from the ANC.

Malema was found guilty of sowing divisions within the ruling party and is currently appealing against his expulsion.

The ANC’s National Disciplinary Committee of Appeals (NDCA) will rule on the matter later this week. 

At the same time, a youth activist has asked the South African Human Rights Commission to investigate Zille’s “refugee” comments.

She came under attack for referring to Eastern Cape students, who come to the province in search of a better education, as “refugees.”

On Tuesday, she apologised and said it was never her intention to offend anyone.

(Edited by Lindiwe Mlandu)

SOURCE

The ANC’s national disciplinary committee of appeals (NDCA) is today expected to announce the confirmation of youth league leader Julius Malema’s expulsion from the party, highly placed sources have told The New Age.

The NDCA is also expected to rule on the five-year suspension of ANC Youth League spokesperson Floyd Shivambu and one-year suspension of its secretary-general Sindiso Maqaqa.

The confirmation of the expulsion of Malema from the ANC will spell the widely predicted death knell of his political future in the party and comes at a time when the Hawks and the taxman are preparing to swoop on the embattled youth leader.

Malema was expelled from the ANC in November last year for sowing division within the party and for bringing it into disrepute. He was also silenced earlier this month when the ANC’s national disciplinary committee suspended him from the party after he called President Jacob Zuma a dictator.

The conditions of the suspension prohibited him from exercising any duty as an ANC member, president of the ANCYL or member of Limpopo province’s executive committee.

Recent public utterances by Malema were that he was expecting his expulsion from the party and that he was preparing to challenge the final decision of the NDCA in court.

The NDCA decision comes at a time when the ANCYL is torn apart on the Malema affair and is expected to spark battles in the race to succeed him and the key positions filled by Shivambu and Maqaqa.

In recent weeks, there has been intense speculation on the front-runners to succeed Malema. Ronald Lamola, ANCYL deputy president, and Pule Mabe, treasurer-general, have emerged as the most likely successors.

Following Malema’s recent suspension from all activities in the ANC and its youth league, Lamola stepped up to the plate and positioned himself as the league’s chief spokesperson and a unifier of sorts.

The NDCA decision is also expected to be the clearest signal yet that the ANC is serious about clamping down on the growing indiscipline within its ranks.
 

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AMUKELANI CHAUKE, Sapa

As a web of tax investigations reportedly closed in on suspended ANC Youth League president Julius Malema, his biggest ally gained some ground when he was re-elected as the league’s Limpopo secretary yesterday.

Jacob Lebogo, an ally and childhood friend of Malema, was elected unopposed at the league’s provincial conference, although rivals were not present.

Lebogo was reportedly among those who last year bussed in supporters from Limpopo when Malema first appeared before the ANC national disciplinary committee; support that later erupted into violence outside party headquarters Luthuli House.

While Limpopo youth league delegates re-elected Lebogo and other executives yesterday, opposition factions held a parallel conference in Seshego, Malema’s home town, after they were not allowed into the main conference venue at the weekend.

The ANC in Limpopo has discredited the parallel conference.

But Lebogo’s re-election, which might be seen as a step towards reaffirming the political grip of Malema and his ally premier Cassel Mathale on Limpopo, will do little to ease Malema’s troubles.

Having lost an appeal against his suspension last week, Malema is waiting to hear if the ANC’s national disciplinary committee of appeals will uphold its expulsion of him from the party.

To add to his woes, Malema is reportedly the subject of a SA Revenue Service tax evasion investigation of his Ratanang Trust Fund.

City Press newspaper has reported that Malema has been served with a tax bill of more than R10-million related to millions deposited into the controversial Ratanang Trust Fund.

Yesterday, the Sunday Independent reported that businessmen and government officials who refused to cooperate with SARS investigations have been subpoenaed to appear before a secret judicial inquiry into suspected tax evasion.

The Sunday Independent also reported that Malema had financial hardships.

Last week, Malema – who once showed off a R250000 watch and demolished a multimillion-rand Sandton house apparently to build a mansion – reportedly failed to pay a gardener.

• The ANC Youth League says Malema is not available to serve as vice-president of the International Union of Socialist Youth, despite nominations from several countries. The league said yesterday it wanted to focus its energy on “domestic challenges”.