Suspended ANC Youth League president Julius Malema arrived at a church service in the Eastern Cape on Friday morning, accompanied by a VIP unit. He was expected to speak at the Twelve Apostles’ Church in Christ in Butterworth, the SABC reported.
As his spokesperson confirmed that Malema’s attendance is in his capacity as the president of the ruling party’s youth wing, this move appears to be in defiance of his temporary suspension from the ANC, which explicitly bans him from representing the youth league or its mother body, or from attending national executive committee, national working committee and Limpopo provincial executive committee meetings.
In a statement on Thursday, youth league spokesperson Floyd Shivambu said: “In celebrating Easter Friday and commemorating the life of Solomon Mahlangu, president Julius Malema will visit the Twelve Apostles’ Church in Christ in Butterworth.”
Malema was visiting the church in his capacity as league president, Shivambu said.
Mahlangu was an Umkhonto we Sizwe soldier hanged by the apartheid government in 1979.
On Wednesday, Malema was gagged and temporarily suspended by the ANC’s national disciplinary committee (NDC), a move which forbids him exercising any duty as an ANC member, president of the ANCYL or member of the Limpopo provincial executive committee.
Malema’s temporary suspension from the party followed comments he made at a centenary lecture at the University of the Witwatersrand last Friday. Malema called ANC president Jacob Zuma a dictator and said he was suppressing the youth league.
The ANCYL leader was informed on Wednesday morning of his immediate temporary suspension, and that the NDC would bring disciplinary proceedings against him.
The NDC had instituted special measures because of Malema’s repeated behaviour. Malema is appealing his expulsion from the ANC for sowing division in the party and for bringing it into disrepute.
The appeals hearing was expected to take place on April 12.
The two disciplinary proceedings are separate. — Sapa
For more news and multimedia on ANC Youth League president Julius Malema click here.
