Malema to crush dissent
2010-08-01 13:00
Moffet Mofokeng, Sabelo Ndlangisa, George Matlala and Sizwe Sama Yende
ANC Youth League president Julius Malema plans to amend the organisation’s constitution to get rid of his rivals after a national general council scheduled for August 24.
Malema – who has faced stern opposition from the ANCYL in Eastern Cape, Limpopo, North West, and parts of the Free State and Mpumalanga – will propose that all members who take the organisation to court to deal with internal matters be automatically expelled.
The move is seen as Malema’s bid to quell the rebellion against him ahead of the 2011 elective conference – a crucial event linked to the ANC succession battle a year later.
The ANCYL, in its 15-page discussion document on organisational growth and development, proposes that the same punishment be meted out to members who attend party meetings “under the influence of alcohol or drugs”.
“This should be effected because allowing internal organisational matters to be adjudicated by courts will degenerate (sic) the organisation into total insignificance, where it will be only those who have access to legal support who will impose court decisions in the organisation,” reads the document.
The league’s discussion documents were released in the same week that the ANC unveiled its documents, which paint a bleak picture of the state of the ruling party.
Ironically, Malema was elected at a chaotic 2008 Mangaung conference, where some of his rowdy supporters binged on alcohol and paraded half-naked.
At the Mpumalanga ANCYL conference on Friday, Malema said: “When you take the organisation to court, you must know that you are no longer an ANCYL member. No leader will be imposed on us by the courts. The ANC is not taking disciplinary action against those individuals, but if it was Malema doing that, I would be told I have crossed the line.”
Malema – who was accompanied to the Mpumalanga conference by his Limpopo allies Jacob Lebogo and Clifford Motsepe – said Masoga was a “clown”.
The league’s disgruntled members from Mpumalanga’s Ehlanzeni region this week said they were taking the party to court over a disputed conference.
The group’s leader, former secretary Diketso Khaile, said they would file papers in the North Gauteng High Court tomorrow after exhausting all internal processes.
Lehlogonolo Masoga, the ousted Limpopo youth league leader, recently said that the national general council would be used to settle political scores.
Masoga was axed from the party, while ANC MP Stella Ndabeni faced expulsion for filing a court affidavit in support of Masoga, who challenged Malema in the South Gauteng High Court.
“Disbanded” Eastern Cape leaders frustrated Malema when, on two occasions, they successfully stopped conferences that would have appointed his allies.
On Friday, Mlibo Qoboshiyana, Eastern Cape party chair, called on the ANC to resolve the stalemate.
“The provincial executive council of the ANCYL in Eastern Cape finds no fulfilment or joy in resorting to courts in resolving organisational processes, but the suffocation of internal democracy has compelled us to take this undesirable course.
“Day by day, we are losing confidence in the ability of the ANCYL national executive committee officials to provide leadership due to their consistent flouting of the constitution of the ANCYL, undermining of the ANC and reneging on every decision and process,” Qoboshiyana said.
He made the remarks after the Grahamstown High Court put the brakes on Malema’s bid to hold the elective provincial conference without the “disbanded” provincial leaders.