ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema’s fight to stay close to the political hearth continues on Monday when his lawyers submit heads of argument as to why his five-year suspension should be overturned.
They will present oral argument to this effect a week later.
Much is at stake for Malema. If he loses the appeal, his suspension kicks in and, at age 30, this would prevent his return to the top league post as the cut-off age for membership is 35. He would also have to forfeit his recently won post on the Limpopo ANC executive committee, where he clinched the 17th spot of 20 during the provincial conference last month.
Aside from Malema’s five-year suspension, ANCYL spindoctor Floyd Shivambu received a three-year suspension and the officials were given suspended two-year suspensions. These sanctions have not yet kicked in.
It is expected the legal argument by Malema’s lawyers – both in the heads of argument filed on Monday and oral legal arguments presented the following Monday – will follow the league’s response to the disciplinary verdict.
ANC spokesman Keith Khoza confirmed that if the initial findings and sentence were upheld, the suspension of Malema would take effect immediately.
The league said it would not comment on the process or, according to its spokeswoman Magdalene Moonsamy, say “anything that is emotional”. Insiders say the disciplinary committee of appeals, chaired by businessman Cyril Ramaphosa, also a national executive committee member, could deliver its ruling before the end of the month.
There are several paths the committee could choose: it could uphold the verdict and suspensions, uphold the verdict but change the periods of suspension, or find that the initial disciplinary hearing was flawed.
Both the ANC and lawyers say there are still options for Malema and the others should the appeal fail: a review of the suspensions by the ANC national executive committee after a member raises the matter there, or the ANC national conference in December could review the suspensions. There is also the option of approaching the courts. - Weekend argus