INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS

ANC national spokesman Jackson Mthembu. Photo: Motshwari Mofokeng

The suspension of ANC Youth League leaders was a step towards maintaining discipline in party ranks, ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu said on Thursday.

“These are the starting steps. We cannot allow people to engage in deviant behaviour and not act,” he told reporters outside Luthuli House in Joburg.

“Today is a step towards improvement. We are quite confident that from today they will be able to start doing some managing of damage done.”

Mthembu said he was proud of the ANC.

It was significant that the public had been told the facts and evidence of what happened behind closed doors, he said.

“Maybe a lot of parties will learn from us. No other organisation will have an internal disciplinary and then make it public. We have crossed the Rubicon. The ANC will not be the same.”

He said the party's internal processes were meant to correct behaviour and no one was above correction.

“All of us must be disciplined members of the ANC.”

Mthembu said he did not foresee any action from members following the verdict.

The ANC's national disciplinary committee announced on Thursday that league leader Julius had damaged the standing of the party and South Africa's international reputation.

Committee chairman Derek Hanekom said Malema had made himself guilty several times in the past two years of sowing divisions within the ANC.

Malema was found guilty of criticising Zuma in another ANC disciplinary hearing last year.

The national disciplinary committee at the time said should Malema be found guilty of provoking serious divisions or a break-down of unity in the organisation within the next two years, his ANC membership would be suspended.

He was found not guilty of sowing racial or political intolerance.

Malema, who wrote exams in Limpopo on Thursday, had 14 days to appeal against the ruling.

He would remain on full pay until all the appeal processes were completed, Mthembu said.

Police and security guards maintained a presence outside Luthuli House, where about 40 people had gathered.

Gauteng police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said he was “very” happy it had been a quiet day, with no incidents reported.

“We were just taking precautions (with riot gear and barbed wire). We expected it to be quiet.” – Sapa