Independent Newspapers

Lehlohonolo Masoga, Julius Malema's arch-rival, has attacked deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe and ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe for negotiating in "bad faith". Photo: Independent Newspapers

George Matlala

DEPUTY President Kgalema Motlanthe and ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe have come under attack from Julius Malema’s arch-rival Lehlohonolo Masoga, who accused the party’s chiefs of negotiating in “bad faith” when they instructed him to drop a legal case against the ANC Youth League (ANCYL).

The Sunday Independent has seen confidential letters Masoga sent to the party in which he accuses Motlanthe and Mantashe of failing to handle his disciplinary process and subsequent expulsion in a manner consistent with the party’s constitution.

In a letter addressed to the leadership of both the league and the ANC, Masoga stopped just short of saying Motlanthe and Mantashe had duped him into dropping the case against Malema and his leadership collective.

“Your failure to deal with the matter (and to respond to my correspondence) illustrates that at all material times you acted in bad faith and never really intended to facilitate a resolution.

“I conclude that you failed to attend to my matter as required by the constitution, which constitutes gross violation of my rights as a member of the ANCYL,” he wrote.

Masoga threatened to take “necessary steps to ensure reinstatement of my rights as a member of the ANCYL”.

Motlanthe and Mantashe were leading a task team appointed by the party in August to put out the fires that were engulfing the league, after several of its provincial conferences exploded into mayhem as the succession battle between Malema and his deputy Andile Lungisa raged.

That fight is part of the bigger succession battle before the ANC’s elective conference in 2012 – Malema’s league is supporting Minister of Sport and Recreation Fikile Mbalula to replace Mantashe as secretary-general.

Masoga was suspended for walking out and causing divisions at the league’s chaotic Limpopo conference in April, when a Malema proxy, Frans Moswane, was elected as the provincial chairman.

He took the matter to court but later withdrew the case after Motlanthe and Mantashe instructed him to do so in order not to exhaust ANC internal processes.

The party warned at the time that whoever took its matters to court would be expelled.

However, Masoga is now crying foul, saying the league’s leadership did not deal with his appeal against the disciplinary process and subsequent expulsion within the number of days required by the party’s constitution.

In the appeal dated August 13 – which The Sunday Independent has seen – Masoga accused Malema of rigging the Limpopo conference and using the disciplinary process to exclude him from the league.

Masoga’s expulsion has changed the balance of forces in the league’s succession battle and resulted in his supporters throwing their weight behind the league’s Gauteng chairman, Lebo Maile. Maile, who is the province’s MEC for sports, arts, culture and recreation, has now become the rallying point for those not supporting Malema for a second term.

This is after Lungisa embarrassingly apologised to the league’s members at its national general council in August after he was accused of using his position as the chairman of the National Youth Development to campaign.

The apology derailed his campaign as Malema tightened his control of the league.

Malema has support in Limpopo, the Free State, North West and the Eastern Cape; leadership structures in these provinces have publicly endorsed him.

Youth league spokesman Floyd Shivambu said Masoga had not appealed against his disciplinary process within the 21 days he was expected to do so.

“He has not appealed even after the ANC asked him to appeal… Now that he has aspirations to lead the ANCYL he is doing things retrospectively,” he said. “There is no appeal we are going to accept, he is expelled forever.”

Masoga refused to comment, saying it was an internal communication between party members.

ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu said: “How do we respond to the media on correspondence between people. Why should we be responding to the media?”