Politics
Youth leader, Julius Malema expelled from ANC
Some league members had vowed to stand by Malema no matter what the ANC said, but others are reportedly vying to succeed him.
The ANC’s Youth League has portrayed itself as the voice of South Africa’s poor, young majority and the early stages of the 30-year-old Malema’s disciplinary hearings had seen protests by his supporters. But he has since struggled to draw crowds, despite seizing on issues of importance to many South Africans: jobs and fighting poverty.
The ANC, which marks its 100th anniversary this year, has won every national election in South Africa, and most provincial and local votes since apartheid ended in 1994.
Since 2009, Malema has questioned Zuma’s leadership, one of the reasons he was initially hauled before the disciplinary committee. He was found guilty on charges related to comments about Zuma and about the government’s support for neighboring Botswana, which the ANC Youth League had labeled imperialist.
The charges concerned relatively narrow issues, compared to the broader debates Malema has sparked. Critics say Malema has drawn too much negative publicity to the party through his racially divisive remarks.
In September, Malema lost a suit brought by a white rights group that had accused him of hate speech for repeatedly singing a song some whites find offensive.
Malema and others say “Shoot the Boer” is a call to resist oppression. “Boer” means farmer in Afrikaans, and is also used to refer to whites. Malema and his supporters have continued to sing the song despite a court order banning it.
He also has repeatedly defied more senior party leaders by arguing the country’s mines should be nationalized, and land forcibly seized from whites and given to blacks.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
