African National Congress Youth League leader Julius Malema on Friday warned ANC leaders they could be removed at any time.
“You must be careful, you’ll be on the streets if you don’t respect the power of the masses,” he told delegates as the league’s first national general council came to an end at Gallagher Estate in Midrand.
“Sometimes power makes you drunk. Leaders should not want to impress those in power, they should rather strive to impress the masses on the ground.”
He said leaders would come and go, but the ANC would remain, and that the league wanted to inherit a party that was “intact”.
“We are the future, we want to inherit the ANC which is intact.”
He then said the jury was still out on President Jacob Zuma’s performance: “… You are just starting, Baba [Zuma].”
Malema added the league did not elect the president of the ANC’s alliance partners — the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist party — it elected an ANC president.
The ANC was the political centre and not the alliance, and leaders were accountable to the ANC.
“If you are accounting somewhere else, there is a problem,” he said.
ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, who the league wants replaced with deputy police minister Fikile Mbalula, is also SACP chairperson.
‘We must all love one another’
The three-day conference saw a motion of no confidence tabled against league deputy president Andile Lungisa. However, members appeared to have extended an olive branch to him. As reporters were allowed back into the Midrand venue at the end of a closed session on Friday, they heard Malema telling delegates Lungisa had apologised.
“Accept the deputy president’s apology by saying ‘yes’,” Malema said.
“We must all love one another,” he added.
Approached to explain Malema’s comments, league secretary-general Vuyiswa Tulelo said it was an ‘internal matter” and declined to elaborate.
Asked whether Lungisa remained the league deputy president, she said: ‘I have not given you any other description, have I?” – Sapa