The Young Communist League (YCL) has expelled its national general secretary, Mazibuko Jara, for bringing the party into disrepute, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Saturday.
The Mail & Guardian reported in November last year that the YCL was considering suspending Jara for questioning the league’s support for Jacob Zuma in a paper he wrote titled What Colour Is Our Flag? Red or JZ?.
The YCL disowned the paper, arguing that it had no status, as it had not been formally presented, and did not represent the views of the YCL’s membership.
In the 10-page document Jara suggested that the party’s approach to the Zuma matter — when rape allegations were made against the former deputy president — ”is a strategic lapse and a reflection of a deeper strategic and programmatic crisis in our party”.
Zuma went on trial and was found not guilty of rape.
The paper called for ”a party retreat and reorientation on the JZ matter” and expressed what many tripartite alliance members had been saying informally for some time — that the belief that Zuma was a champion of the left was incorrect.
Jara wrote: ”Can JZ really be regarded as part of the left and the working-class forces in the ANC [African National Congress]? JZ’s own role in the isolation and marginalisation of a working-class programme in the ANC requires scrutiny. Can JZ really provide breathing space for a left project as it is sometimes argued and implied?”
It was reported that requests for Jara to apologise publicly for his statements were ignored.
The YCL, however, this weekend reiterated its support for Zuma to succeed President Thabo Mbeki during the 2009 presidential elections.