EMBATTLED ANC Youth League president Julius Malema has decided not to stand for the vice-presidency of the International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY) due to “domestic challenges”.
“The league did not accept the nomination for any position in the presidium of IUSY as we need to focus on the domestic challenges we face. (We) will continue to provide ideological leadership to all progressive forces in the African continent and the world,” the league said in a statement yesterday.
At the IUSY congress in Asunción, Paraguay, former ANCYL deputy president and youth league national executive committee member Abner Mosaase had lobbied for Malema.
But it emerged yesterday that the ANCYL would back Western Sahara’s Sahrawi Youth Union, the youth movement of the Polisario Front, for the IUSY presidency.
Had Malema been elected, it might have enabled him to address ANC meetings despite being gagged by the party after his public denunciation of party leader Jacob Zuma as a dictator. – Staff Reporter