/ 9 November 2011

D-Day tomorrow: Malema to learn his fate within ANC

African National Congress Youth League president Julius Malema will know the outcome of his disciplinary hearing on Thursday, the Star reported on Wednesday.

According to the newspaper, Malema and his co-accused had been notified by SMS to be at the ANC’s Luthuli House headquarters, in Johannesburg for the verdict on Thursday.

Malema’s legal counsel Patric Mtshaulana confirmed this to the Star.

Closing arguments in the hearing ended late on Sunday night.

‘Only the most incorrigible’ expelled
Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe said on Tuesday evening that the ruling party only expelled members it believed were beyond rehabilitation.

“The approach of the ANC is that it abandons only the most incorrigible,” Motlanthe told Parliament’s Press Gallery Association.

“It has the confidence that it can correct its members. Even in the ANC, the philosophy is that people always can be corrected by undermining their weak points and supporting their strong points,” he said.

The ANC charged Malema with bringing the party into disrepute and with sowing division within party ranks.

Earlier this year, he said the youth league would send a team to Botswana to consolidate local opposition parties and help bring about regime change.

Malema subsequently apologised for the remarks.

Marred by violence
Also charged are youth league spokesperson Floyd Shivambu, deputy president Ronald Lamola, treasurer general Pule Mabe, secretary-general Sindiso Magaqa and deputy secretary-general Kenetswe Mosenogi.

Malema’s first appearance before the committee took place at Luthuli House in September, but the venue was changed after violence erupted on the streets surrounding the ANC’s headquarters.

Youth league members and supporters threw rocks, bottles and bricks at journalists and police, and burnt ANC flags and T-shirts bearing the image of President Jacob Zuma.

This is not Malema’s first time in front of the ANC’s disciplinary committee. In May last year, he was hauled over the coals for accusing President Jacob Zuma of being worse than former president Thabo Mbeki for berating him in public.

After a bungled prosecution, Malema was eventually ordered to apologise to Zuma, to pay a R10 000 fine and was sent to a political school and to anger-management classes.

He was warned at the time that he may be expelled from the party if found guilty again. — Sapa, Staff reporter