Juju wants Mbeki back

Reuters

Former president Thabo Mbeki enjoys a joke with ANCYL president Julius Malema at the ANC centenary celebrations.

ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema, who played a critical role in Thabo Mbeki’s political demise, has urged the former president to become more involved and vocal in domestic politics.

Malema now plans to ask Mbeki to reconsider an earlier decision to retire from domestic politics.

After being recalled as president by the ANC’s post-Polokwane leadership, Mbeki all but disappeared from the local scene, focusing his energy on peace-building and mediation efforts elsewhere on the continent.

It was reported on Tuesday that in an interview on SAfm Malema had said Mbeki’s silence on domestic policy was “depriving us of that intellectual wealth”.

“I wish Mbeki would reconsider his decision not to participate,” the City Press website quoted Malema as saying.

ANC Youth League spokesman Floyd Shivambu later told Independent Newspapers the young lions had for some time been “discussing internally” the need for Mbeki to become more active in South African politics.

Shivambu said: “(We) have not yet made a formal request (to Mbeki).”

He said Malema’s comment had not been intended to suggest there was an intellectual vacuum, but had rather been a call on all South Africans, including Mbeki, to contribute ideas for implementation, to better the country. “There must never be anybody that must be silent,” he said.

Because of Mbeki’s political experience at the helm of the party and the state he should contribute to “reinforcing what the ANC is doing”, said Shivambu.

At the ANC’s January 8 event at the Free State stadium on Sunday, Mbeki received a rapturous welcome from the tens of thousands of ANC supporters packing the venue.

Mbeki, who along with ANC veteran Ahmed Kathrada handed the centenary flame to President Jacob Zuma, was in good spirits.

He smiled and laughed as he made his way to the stage where the ANC leaders were seated. The crowd cheered enthusiastically when Mbeki was introduced, and when Zuma mentioned his name during the January 8 address, there was a buzz of excitement.

Mbeki and Malema were later spotted sharing a joke, with the youth leader packing up laughing.

Malema said on Tuesday the crowd’s reaction to Mbeki was testament to the support he still enjoyed among the ANC masses.

“They are happy to see him; they have forgiven him and they embrace him.”

Although Malema was one of Mbeki’s most vocal opponents in the run-up to the ANC’s watershed Polokwane conference, he has since changed his tune.

Last year he hailed Mbeki as the “best” president the ANC had produced.

In what was perceived to be a swipe at Zuma, Malema said Mbeki was the most educated and clever ANC leader. He also said the “African agenda” within the ANC had ended since Mbeki’s departure.

Two months later, Malema and the entire leadership of the youth league were slapped with disciplinary charges by the ruling party, including over the comments about Mbeki.

In November the ANC’s national disciplinary committee found Malema guilty of sowing divisions within the party and bringing it into disrepute. The committee found his comparisons between the leadership of Mbeki and Zuma to be an attack on Zuma.

Malema’s appeal, along with that of Shivambu, who faces a three-year suspension, and the other four ANCYL leaders, who face suspended sentences, is set to be heard in due course.

Malema said he and the other youth leaders would file their heads of argument in their appeal to the ANC’s national disciplinary committee of appeals on Monday. - Political Bureau