Malema, Lamola urged to play nice
2012-11-28 17:05
Johannesburg - Suspended ANCYL spokesperson Floyd Shivambu on Wednesday urged former youth wing leader Julius Malema and his successor Ronald Lamola not to play into the hands of the enemy, after Malema launched a scathing attack on Lamola.
Malema criticised Lamola, calling him a "traitor" and a "sell-out", The Star newspaper reported on Wednesday.
"He is compromised. He is gone. He has sold out... [With] his sell-out tendencies he will never lead the youth league," Malema told the paper.
Malema criticised a statement by Lamola that the league would support the outcome of the ANC national elective conference in Mangaung regardless of whether their endorsed candidates won.
"Without being asked a question, he just said we will accept the results even if [President Jacob] Zuma wins. Even among the forces of change, Lamola is not anybody to be listened to. He is a traitor, he is not going to carry that mandate to its logical conclusion," Malema said.
But Malema's right-hand man Shivambu, defended Lamola, saying he had not betrayed the organisation, and urged the two to end their bickering.
"...Ronald Lamola has not betrayed the struggle for economic freedom in our lifetime and has not changed the collective view that there should be [a] change of leadership in the ANC 53rd national conference..." Shivambu said in a statement on Wednesday.
But he said Malema remained their "commander-in-chief" as the findings of ANC national disciplinary committee did not hold water "in the struggle and in formal structures of the ANC Youth League".
He said Lamola's self-appointment as acting president did not count.
Shivambu said Malema and Lamola were the two most senior people in their organisation and their responsibility and obligation was to guide all progressive forces towards "victory of the war".
"Tactical blunders and mistakes, which include miscommunication, have [the] potential to throw (sic) confusion... and disorganise the struggle for total economic emancipation," he said.
"Differences on the tactical options and what is to be immediately done have [the] potential to undermine and compromise the strategic mission we have identified for ourselves.
"And if these unnecessary differences and bickering are not discontinued, we run the risk of undermining the struggle for economic freedom... and once again delay the emancipation of the downtrodden, hopeless, and suffering masses of our people."
"The strategic enemy of our struggle is capital and imperialism; those we politically oppose in the ANC are their representatives and if we continue fighting among ourselves, these representatives of white monopoly capital will ascend to position[s] of leadership.
"That is why unity in opposing this political apocalypse is paramount," he said.
- SAPA
