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Julius Malema suspended by South Africa’s ANC
In a strong slap at a young but powerful politician, South Africa’s governing party fired its controversial youth leader Thursday and suspended him from the African National Congress (ANC) for five years for sowing intolerance and disunity.
The action, announced live on national television, against Julius Malema (pictured), was unexpectedly severe. The party in previous months had seemed unwilling to crack down on a man who spewed insults and divisive rhetoric, one whom old guard ANC leaders apparently did not want to alienate.
The 30-year-old has been seen as the king maker who helped President Jacob Zuma defeat a predecessor in an internal party power struggle but brought on the sanctions by criticizing the president and his policies concerning neighboring Botswana.
“The acts of misconduct for which the respondent has been found guilty are very serious, and have damaged the integrity of the ANC and South Africa’s international reputation,” said Derek Hanekom, chairman of the party’s national disciplinary committee.
Malema has 14 days to appeal the rulings made by an internal ANC disciplinary panel. Malema said he would appeal.
“We are not intimidated by any outcome,” he said in the northern town of Polokwane, where South Africa’s eTV station showed him addressing a small crowd of supporters. “The ANC is our home.”
The sanctions deprive Malema, who has been active in the ANC since he was a primary school student and it was a banned group battling apartheid, of a formal power base.
The ANC said Malema’s membership was frozen because he questioned whether Zuma was providing the kind of pan-African leadership that former President Thabo Mbeki had provided. Ironically, Malema helped bring Zuma to power by rallying enough votes to make him the head of the ANC, replacing Mbeki. The ANC president generally is the party’s candidate to lead the country, and Zuma went on to become president in 2009.
