/ 12 February 2008

ANCYL: No decision on Zuma reinstatement

There has been no decision by the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) to call for the reinstatement of party president Jacob Zuma as deputy president of the country, the league’s spokesperson said on Monday.

”If there was a decision, it would have been communicated,” said spokesperson Zizi Kodwa.

Earlier, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) reported that the Limpopo ANCYL said they wrote a letter to the party secretary general, Gwede Mantashe, calling for Zuma to be reinstated.

”The president of the ANC should be reinstated as the deputy president of the country in preparation for a total takeover in 2009,” SABC news reported provincial league secretary Julias Malema as saying in Polokwane on Monday.

”This is done because we are convinced by the resolution of the ANC congress that says that the president of the ANC should become the president of the country.

”In preparation of the smooth transition, we think it is important,” said Malema.

President Thabo Mbeki relieved Zuma of his duties as deputy president in July 2005 after he was named in the fraud trial of Schabir Shaik.

On Monday, Kodwa said the Limpopo branch had a right to say what it wanted.

They did not need permission from the national ANCYL ”to think”, said Kodwa. — Sapa