Johannesburg - The governing African National Congress (ANC) should learn from the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and its leader Julius Malema on politics and leadership, Mavuso Msimang said on Friday.
"There is an angry young man, whose party is nothing but a product of our own failure as the ANC. This is a young man that we taught and nurtured him to spew bile.... he has now come back to torment and humiliate his erstwhile mentor in Parliament today," Msimang told delegates at the UMkhonto We Sizwe (MK) national council's conference held in Johannesburg.
"I want us to acknowledge that this young party is putting a lot of good praise on education. We must learn some lessons, they do that while our [ANC] youth league is highly preoccupied with the Guptas, and white monopoly capital, but with total disregard or concern for youth empower issues.
"I think we must take a leaf from the EFF and start putting in place a youth league and a youth movement that would assist us and run the organisation...otherwise we will be left behind."
Malema is a former ANCYL leader. He was expelled from the governing party in 2012 for bringing the party into disrepute. His close confidante, EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu was suspended for three years. He and Malema formed the EFF a few months later.
The firebrand Malema has recently attained his second degree from the University of South Africa (Unisa). Earlier, former president Kgalema Motlanthe said the ANC needed to attract young people to the party.
"We must ensure that this contingent corrects along with the younger people, because continuity will be assured by how far we succeed. The older you become, the more you adapt to circumstances. That is why we the energy of youth who will push boundaries...that how we will be able to ensure that this revolution does not fizzle out," he told the delegates.