Durban - The ANC Youth League (ANCYL) has urged its members to prepare to “physically defend” South Africa’s democracy from the “anarchists” in the EFF who disrupted Parliament last week.
Calling the EFF an unnecessary irritation, Magasela Mzobe, co-ordinator of the national task team set up to run the youth league, said the ANCYL must be the “Doom” that “destroys that mosquito”.
The league could not sit back while President Jacob Zuma was insulted and Parliament was disrupted by Julius Malema and the EFF, Mzobe told about 100 members at a meeting at Durban University of Technology on Sunday.
Mzobe, who is being backed by the ANC’s powerful eThekwini region to take over as youth league president at next month’s elective conference, said they planned to meet the EFF in the streets outside Parliament - “where the rules of Parliament do not apply”.
“They are physically disrupting Parliament and we must physically defend our democracy… If you understand our role, you will know that we do not need the permission of the ANC leadership to defend our democracy,” Mzobe said, to wild applause.
“The police of the Western Cape failed to bring order to Parliament. They could not bring order... that is why the youth league must stand up and defend this revolution,” he said.
Mzobe, along with Sports and Recreation Minister Fikile Mbalula - a former youth league president - was addressing a “political class” of youth league members in Durban.
Malema told the Daily News on Sunday that he was unfazed by the youth league’s threat.
“Tell them we will be waiting for them,” he said.
Parliament had to be adjourned on Thursday after members of the EFF interrupted Zuma while he was replying to a question on the security upgrades to his Nkandla home. They demand-ed he pay back the more than R200 million that had been spent on the upgrades.
Mzobe said the ANC in Parliament should be focused on implementing the mandate of the electorate, but was having to deal with “anarchists” instead.
“We told the ANC to leave the EFF to us now. (The) EFF will not be stopped by the rules of Parliament... You can’t have government undermined... There is a mosquito in Parliament,” he said.
“We sent (ANC) leadership to Parliament to change the lives of people. The EFF is becoming an unnecessary irritation and the youth league must be the Doom that must destroy that mosquito.”
Said Mzobe: “We are talking to the chief whip in Parliament and told him to give us the date for the next sitting. We must be there to defend.”
Mzobe said Zuma should ignore those who wanted him to pay for Nkandla, as the issue “was long exhausted”.
“The people of South Africa gave a verdict on that issue on the 7th of May (election day). They said comrade Zuma was not guilty. They wanted him to go back to Parliament and lead South Africa.”
Zuma did not need to pay for the security upgrades to his home, Mzobe said. “He never asked for a swimming pool. We meet with him every Monday and he spoke about many things, but he never said anything about taking swimming lessons. He is too busy being president, he does not have time to swim,” he said, to applause.
Mzobe said government officials who authorised the upgrades should be prosecuted.
He assured delegates attending the league’s September 24 elective conference that there “will be no showing of bums”, as was the case when Malema’s supporters took down their pants when he was elected president in 2008.
Mzobe, however, said the youth league would resist attempts to turn it into a “desk of the ANC”.
“The youth league must remain militant. Attempts to make the ANCYL a desk of the ANC is going to kill the existence of the ANCYL. We must let the (ANC) leadership know they must not rest until… the lives of all young people are changed,” Mzobe said.
“But militancy is separate from anarchy. Attacking ANC polices is not militancy, it is anarchy,” he said. “Anarchy must be dealt with in a manner befitting anarchy.”
Daily News