The man challenging African National Congress Youth League leader Julius Malema for his position plans to use a “hard-hitting” document to oust him, City Press reported on Sunday.
The league’s Gauteng leader, Lebogang Maile, and his campaign team penned the document last week and they accuse Malema of dictatorial tendencies, plundering state resources and dividing the league.
The scathing two-page document, titled Political outlook of our campaign”, contains harsh criticism of Malema’s leadership style.
Mzwandile Masina, Maile’s chief campaigner, who identified himself as one of the authors of the document, said it was drafted by a five-person “central command” with input from structures across the country.
The document lists Malema’s “ill-discipline and chaos owing to misguided militancy” and a failure to deal with “youth-specific challenges”.
The critical problems they outline were apparently the views of several thousand youth league members.
The document argues that it is the “political madness characterising the leadership of the ANCYL” that has reduced it to a shadow of its former self. It also speaks of a “cavalier approach” being adopted to suppress differences of opinion.
Masina claimed that eight members of Malema’s 27-member national executive committee were already behind Maile, but they could not be named.
He claimed that 55% of delegates would throw their weight behind Maile on voting day.
While their strongest support lay in Gauteng and North West, he said they had also made inroads in Northern Cape and enjoyed equal support to Malema in KwaZulu-Natal.
Last week, Maile said he would challenge Malema at the youth league’s 24th conference in Midrand on June 16. – Sapa