ANC Distances Itself From Malema Statement

Former ANC Youth League president Julius Malema tours the razed housing settlement at Lenasia. The plight of the residents was his concern during the visit., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Sep 17 2013 1:11PM

ANC distances itself from Malema statement

New Age, South Africa

Comments about expelled ANC Youth League president Julius Malema made by an ANC Gauteng provincial executive committee (PEC) member do not reflect the party's views, it said on Tuesday.

"We want to put it on record that the views expressed by the PEC member comrade Panyaza Lesufi are his personal opinions," ANC Gauteng spokesman Dumisa Ntuli said in a statement.

"At no stage of any ANC Gauteng meeting [did] such views or discussion emerge," he said.

On Monday, the Independent Online reported that Lesufi had called on the African National Congress to review its decision to expel Malema, who now leads the Economic Freedom Fighters.

He was quoted as saying: "The ANC still needs a Julius Malema, in so much as a Julius Malema cannot survive 'outside of the ANC', an organisation that made him what he is today."

Lesufi said he respected the party's decision to expel Malema two years ago, but that the decision might have been "too harsh".

"Unlike [the Congress of the People], whose members left the ANC, these comrades were expelled, surely a decision that is within our powers to review."

Ntuli encouraged Lesufi to raise his concerns at ANC meetings.

"The matter of the expulsion of Julius Malema has been fully exhausted in the internal processes of the ANC, his expulsion is now history."

Malema's expulsion from the party was finalised in April 2012. He was found guilty of sowing division in the party and bringing it into disrepute. He was found to have done so by unfavourably comparing the leadership style of President Jacob Zuma to that of former president Thabo Mbeki, and for remarks on bringing about regime change in Botswana.

-Sapa