Julius Malema thought the ANC was weak and he could do whatever he “wants to do” but he was “immature”, President Jacob Zuma said.
He also warned senior ANC leaders who “cross the line” by defending Malema.
The embattled Malema – who is in a fierce combat with Zuma ahead of the ANC’s conference in Mangaung in December – is awaiting the outcome of arguments at the ANC disciplinary committee over mitigation of his sentence. But his suspension from the party is highly likely to be confirmed by the ANC’s disciplinary committee.
In an interview with Independent Newspapers on Sunday in Mahlamba Ndlopfu, his official state residence, Zuma said the party had given Malema a second chance after he was found guilty of undermining the ANC leader in 2010.
“I don’t think he was in a position to understand how the ANC was acting, I think his understanding was that this organisation is weak, you can do whatever you want to do.
“I think that’s why the ANC now needs to act and act resolutely,” he said, referring to the party’s failure to enforce its sanctions against Malema such as taking him for anger management lessons.
On accusations that he had defended Malema three years ago when he was bullying his opponents and when he declared his willingness to kill for the president, Zuma said he had qualified his support for the radical youth leader.
“I was in Limpopo, when I said that in Malema there is a leader, he needs to be properly nurtured… I was with him to open a house he had built for a poor family. We also went to launch the church where his mother used to go which he has helped (to build).”
Zuma said people should never “try to equate the misbehaviour of the youth league today to very reasonable” actions by past league leaders such as Nelson Mandela.
“There was no youth league meetings… which stood up and criticised and sang songs about the leadership of the ANC… It tells you of political immaturity, and misunderstanding of the history of the ANC,” Zuma said, in reference to Malema supporters’ offensive slogans about the president.
Malema could not be reached for comment on Sunday.
Zuma berated senior ANC leaders who defended Malema’s ill discipline, saying such leaders “are serving other interests”.
“It is not from the branches, it is from the leadership that that line has been crossed, that’s where the problem is, which undermines the capacity of the ANC to deal with discipline.”
Asked about criticism by his colleague, ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa, of the Zuma administration’s intervention in Limpopo and his indirect support for Malema, Zuma – who did not mention Phosa by name – said: “It does not mean because you are a leader you are beyond this kind of thing. It is not the first time in the ANC that people from the leadership begin to act against the principles of those of the ANC.
“The ANC historically has always dealt with such things… When I talked about the drawing of the line by the branches, it was not for ordinary membership only. It’s also for leaders.”
”Once leaders begin to behave in a certain way, the ANC will act,” Zuma warned, citing the ANC’s dismissals of some of its senior leaders in the 1970s.
He admitted “tenders have made a big damage… to the ANC cadres”.
“That is why we are looking at it from government, should we continue with this system of tenders or should we change it… it has indeed dented images of many of our cadres.”
l Sapa reports Malema’s mitigation process was expected to start today. - Political Bureau