Durban – The ANC Youth League in KwaZulu-Natal has conditionally supported a call by Mpumalanga Province ANC chairman David Mabuza to have Julius Malema recruited back to his former political home.
ANCYL KwaZulu-Natal secretary Thanduxolo Sabelo said if Malema rejoined the ANC, he should not expect to be deployed to hold any leadership position “because he violated the constitution of the ANC, and the sanction that was given to him was appropriate”.
Addressing delegates of the ANCYL special provincial general council in Mbombela, Mabuza was reported to have said if Malema was still in the ranks of the ANC, the ruling party could be in a better position than having him outside its ranks.
Mabuza said although the ANC had different personalities, it was stronger when “all of them are within the ANC.
“We are weaker when people leave the ANC.
“So we must learn to coexist and tolerate one another.
“I am just sending a message that he must expect me.
“I am coming because I am not afraid of him, he knows, because it’s about our country; it’s about our beloved country,” said Mabuza.
Sabelo said Malema was free to return home, because the condition of his expulsion in 2012 was that his membership would only be reinstated after five years.
“Indeed, we will welcome him if he can be recruited back, because that five years have passed.
“But we must remember also that being recruited back to the ANC does not mean that you are coming back to be a leader of the ANC,” said Sabelo.
“If he were to be recruited back, it would collapse the EFF, which is built in the name of the ANCYL. The EFF stole the policies of the ANC.
“It (the EFF) is built in the image of Julius Malema.
“If Julius Malema leaves the EFF, there is no EFF. So we believe that he would come back with his supporters who left with him to form the EFF,” said Sabelo.
However, the EFF has rudely shot down Mabuza’s call for Malema to return to the ANC.
EFF spokesman Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said his party’s commander-in-chief would “never be recruited by a kleptomaniac”.
“He can never be recruited by Zuma’s first-born of corruption. DD Mabuza is like Zuma’s first-born in terms of kleptocracy in the ANC,” said Ndlozi.
He said Mabuza was using Malema to gain a profile ahead of the national conference of the ANC.
Ndlozi said Malema would never leave the EFF.
Malema said recently that the EFF was ready to fold if the ANC could implement radical economic transformation such as the expropriation of land without compensation, and nationalising mines and banks.