ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema will be absent when the verdict on his disciplinary hearing is announced on Thursday, the league said.
It said he would be writing examinations in Polokwane at the time.
Malema’s co-accused, spokesperson Floyd Shivambu, league deputy president Ronald Lamola, treasurer general Pule Mabe, secretary general Sindiso Magaqa and deputy secretary general Kenetswe Mosenogi, would attend the meeting with the disciplinary committee.
“The ANCYL places it on record that we subject ourselves to the discipline and guidance of the ANC,” the league said in a statement.
“The leadership of the ANCYL will only speak publicly about the disciplinary proceedings and outcomes after every little detail of the [disciplinary committee] has been concluded.”
The group will hear its fate at the ANCss Luthuli House headquarters in Johannesburg.
Closing arguments in the hearing, which started at the end of August, ended late on Sunday night.
Rehabilitation
Malema’s first appearance before the ANC disciplinary committee took place at Luthuli House but it was moved after violence erupted in the Johannesburg city centre.
League members threw bricks and stones at police and the media and burnt T-shirts with the face of President Jacob Zuma printed on them.
The ANC has charged Malema with bringing the party into disrepute and sowing division within party ranks.
Earlier this year, he said the league would send a team to Botswana to consolidate local opposition parties and help bring about regime change in that country. Malema subsequently apologised for the remarks.
Malema was found guilty of criticising Zuma by another ANC disciplinary hearing last year. He pleaded guilty to this charge.
The national disciplinary committee at the time said that should Malema be found guilty of provoking serious divisions or a break-down of unity in the organisation within the next two years, his membership of the ANC would be suspended.
On Tuesday, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe said 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.” — Sapa
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