Johannesburg - Former ANC Limpopo secretary Soviet Lekganyane has dismissed claims by expelled ANCYL president Julius Malema that the branch criticised him to save itself.
“For him to hallucinate that we released a statement renouncing him in order to propitiate favours with the new leadership and stave off any possible dissolution of the PEC (provincial executive committee) is as infantile as it is parochial,” he said on Wednesday.
In a statement, which he said was issued in his personal capacity, he continued: “It is a statement of a nostalgic hypocrite reminiscing of his halcyon days in the African National Congress.”
It was reported on Tuesday that Malema was preparing to form a new political party.
He accused President Jacob Zuma of purging and destroying political opponents, including ANC Youth League leaders aligned with him, “because of pure political jealousy, paranoia and fear of the unknown”.
Malema said the victims included the former Limpopo ANC provincial executive committee under premier Cassel Mathale and former North West ANC secretary Kabelo Mataboge, who was suspended from the ANC for three years last week.
“The Limpopo provincial executive committee under Soviet Lekganyane released a statement insulting me for political expediency - that still did not spare them,” Malema was quoted as saying in The Star.
In an interview with SAfm on Tuesday evening, he said: “Soviet Lekganyane released a statement in Limpopo insulting me. His head was chopped trying to impress President Zuma.”
In March, the Limpopo PEC, chaired by Mathale, was dissolved after a decision made by the ANC's national executive committee.
Lekganyane said the PEC released a statement about Malema “as a matter of principle”.
“We would not allow any person, especially from the province, to insult the... ANC leadership, the 53rd national conference and the collective wisdom of the delegates who gathered in Mangaung in such a historic occasion,” he said.
He said it was important for Malema to “dissociate our names from his libertine initiatives.”
“He cannot be qualified to speak about our names when he has not been in the ANC... (since his expulsion),” Lekganyane said.
“We are members of the ANC with an unblemished record of loyalty, obedience and subordination to the decisions of the majority.” - Sapa