Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale has warned the ANC leadership not to underestimate the power and influence of the youth wing president Julius Malema and his executive.
This comes in the wake of weekend reports that Sexwale was slammed by the ruling party’s disciplinary committee for poor knowledge of the ANC’s constitution, and for citing unsubstantiated rumours as fact.
On Monday, the Times newspaper reported that Sexwale had remarked that former ANC president Alfred Xuma was removed from power when he refused to listen to the youth league.
Xuma was ANC president between 1940 and 1949 but was ousted when he fell out of favour with Nelson Mandela’s ANC Youth League by flatly refusing to support its proposal for militant action.
He was replaced by a youth league-endorsed candidate, James Moroka, who joined the party only hours before his election.
Sexwale, who testified for Malema during the disciplinary hearings into his conduct, was speaking at a gala dinner in Eastern Cape organised by the Dr AB Xuma Foundation.
In what appeared to be a thinly veiled attack on President Jacob Zuma, Sexwale warned that no one was guaranteed re-election to a party position, the Times reported.
“There is no permanent position in the ANC. You serve because the people say so,” Sexwale warned, before calling for calm and urging the youth league not to confront the ANC about the suspensions of its leaders.
His warning was made as Malema and his executive plan how to reverse the “harsh” suspensions meted out to them by the ANC last week.
The ANC’s national disciplinary committee announced last week that Malema had to vacate his position as youth league leader after an effective suspension of five years.
Sexwale reportedly called on the youth league to respect the decisions of the disciplinary committee, just as Xuma accepted his removal.
The league reportedly wants Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe to take over from Zuma and Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula to replace ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe.
Tokyo slammed
On Sunday, the City Press reported that the ANC’s national disciplinary committee had slammed the testimony by Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale at ANCYL leader Julius Malema’s disciplinary hearing in Johannesburg.
The full ruling obtained by the City Press criticised Sexwale for much of his evidence.
“The NDC has noted that the overwhelming number of the arguments were unsubstantiated statements and decried Comrade Tokyo’s knowledge of the ANC constitution as an NEC member,” the newspaper quoted the ruling as saying.
On Sunday evening, however, the ANC rejected the newspaper’s report as “malicious and divisive”.
“As far as we are concerned there is only one report in our possession and it does not contain what has been reported about Comrade Tokyo,” ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu said in a statement.
“Comrade Tokyo remains a respected leader of the ANC and no amount of media vilification will take this fact away.” — Sapa
For more news and multimedia on ANC Youth League president Julius Malema view our special report.
