ANCYL: Zuma will have 2nd term

2010-03-09 21:46

Johannesburg - ANC Youth League president Julius Malema on Tuesday expressed support for President Jacob Zuma leading the ruling party for a second term.

"There is nobody who will remove Zuma. If you want to survive in the ANC, support Zuma and by the way, that is the only man who is guaranteed for a second term in 2012," Malema told some 300 students at the University of Johannesburg.

This comes after affiliates of the ANC's alliance partner, the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu), cautioned that a faction in the party would push for a motion of no confidence in Zuma later this year.

Malema, however, added that not all in the ANC's top six leadership would receive the same courtesy.

"We will say the name just after the NGC, after assessing internally.

"There is one man who has isolated himself from the ANC. And this man has behaved like the ANC must be like the Communist Party and Cosatu, it's not. "

The league wants to see Mantashe replaced by Deputy Police Minister Fikile Mbalula - and Malema was adamant that the young lions would get their way come 2012.

ANCYL not threatened

"What we have pronounced as the youth league will be the outcome of 2012.

"These people who are attacking us, they are scared that we are not going to support them. They are trying to put us in a corner, we will never retreat."

He said the ANCYL would also never be threatened by Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi.

Vavi last week came under fire from the ANC, when he cautioned that a small group of ANC leaders, seeking to enrich themselves, were planning to oust senior party officials at the ruling party's upcoming National General Council.

Malema said people who were "governed by fear" claimed a group of "elite corrupt" wants to see the back of Mantashe.

"We are told that we want to remove Comrade Mantashe as secretary-general.

"We have never said that. If we wanted to remove him, we were going to say that because we are not afraid to say things.

"The SG of the ANC will conclude his term in 2012."

'Tenderpreneurs'

Malema cautioned that if Vavi wanted to "put up a fight", the youth league was ready.

Malema chided Vavi for assuming that once he stood down as Cosatu's general secretary - announced at a Cosatu conference last year - he would automatically find a political home among the ANC's top brass.

"... he must go to the branch.

"You must first have a branch.

"He thought he is going to the National Executive Committee of the ANC, that is an uncultured way of addressing issues in the ANC.

"You don't say you are going to the NEC you must say you are going to the branch, but because he doesn't understand the ANC very well he starts from the top."

Vavi last week warned against "tenderpreneurs" who sought to hijack the ANC for their own corrupt ends. He said recent revelations indicated that there may be a need to extend restrictions placed on public servants regarding business interests, to politicians as well - in a veiled reference to Malema.

Malema recently come under fire for allegedly financing his lavish lifestyle through lucrative government tenders.

Malema hit back, saying the league was not afraid of a fight.

"We are not scared of anything, lifestyle audits, corruption, illegal activities, you can accuse us of those, we will never run away."

- SAPA