Political Bureau and sapa
THE ANC has decided to change the venue for ANC Youth League disciplinary hearings after last week’s violent protests by supporters of league leader Julius Malema outside Luthuli House.
And those supporters could find themselves in hot water after the party instructed its provincial leaders to try to identify those involved in staging and taking part in the demonstration outside the party’s headquarters in the Joburg CBD.
The threat of legal action against the ANC should it continue holding Malema’s hearing at Luthuli House, despite the adverse affect on surrounding businesses, was among the factors the national disciplinary committee (NDC) considered.
His hearing resumes on Sunday.
Yesterday, the party’s national working committee (NWC) condemned the protest violence and its organisers and called for the perpetrators to be brought to book.
It also condemned the burning of T-shirts bearing President Jacob Zuma’s face and the ANC flag as “totally un-ANC and a breach of everything the ANC stands for”.
ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said last Tuesday’s events had shown the ANC in a bad light.
“The (NWC) meeting concluded that such behaviour should not be tolerated in the organisation and should be condemned unconditionally.”
NWC members had agreed that the protest had been “used for ill-disciplined purposes” and that it “flies against good and reputable conduct inside the organisation”.
The protest “was uncalled for” and “calculated to undermine the internal organisational processes to uphold disciplined conduct of its members”.
Mantashe said the NWC had called for action against those “implicated in acts of violence and criminality”.
Rioters thronged Joburg’s city centre last Tuesday, before the appearance of Malema and five members of his executive before the ANC’s disciplinary committee.
They also hurled bricks at police and journalists.
Rubber bullets and tear gas were fired several times at Malema supporters, who broke off pieces of concrete barriers and set dustbins alight. Shops closed after rioters threw pieces of glass at them. Several banks in the city closed early.
Windows of some buildings were smashed as rioters threw stones.
Yesterday, the DA said it had laid a charge of incitement to violence against the ANCYL’s Limpopo secretary, Jacob Lebogo, who had been named as an alleged ringleader of the protests.
Malema’s hearing resumes on Sunday and is set down for three days.