Mistrust in ANC young lions' camp

Growing mistrust and suspicion have set in among the leadership of the ANC Youth League, with Julius Malema suspecting his national executive members of plotting to oust him as president.

So bad is the tension that Malema's allies dissuaded him from briefing the league's extended national working committee meeting last Sunday on his disciplinary hearing for fear that some members would leak the information.

Malema is said to have expressed concern about leaks to the media at the meeting and called for "maximum discipline" among members.

"The only thing he said was that the [disciplinary hearing] was going very well ... the defence was doing well, and our witnesses were also excellent," said a youth league national executive committee member who did not want to be named owing to "an instruction that no one speaks to the media".

"He also mentioned reports about those who may want to use this [period of uncertainty] as a short-cut to get into power," said the NEC member.

NEC members said there were concerns that some of the league's top five officials were behind the leaks, given that they were the only ones aware of who the league had called as witnesses at the disciplinary hearing. Yet this information was reported by the media.

The league decided at the meeting to initiate mass action against youth unemployment during all of October. The campaign will culminate in a march to the Union Buildings on October 28.

Similar marches to the Chamber of Mines and Johannesburg Stock Exchange - to demand the nationalisation of mines and "equal shares in the country's wealth" - will also be held, NEC members said.

They said youths throughout the country would be mobilised for a night vigil at the Union Buildings, where a memorandum would be handed overdemanding free education, abolition of labour brokers, jobs for youths, better housing and sanitation for shack dwellers, and access to water.

Some leaders of the ANC have interpreted the campaign as an attempt by the league to undermine President Jacob Zuma's government.

Two ANC provincial leaders told the Sunday Times that while the league's campaign was premised on legitimate concerns like youth unemployment, its timing remained suspect.

"Clearly they are defining themselves outside the ANC," said one of the provincial leaders.

"How can a youth league of the ANC march against an ANC government? All the leagues of the ANC are represented in all constitutional structures of the party ... they already have a platform to raise issues," he said.

The other provincial leader said that while the previous league leadership also marched against unemployment, circumstances now were different.

"It is taking the form of mobilisation coinciding with these [disciplinary] issues of the youth league, which makes it a campaign of ... intensifying mobilisation against the ANC leadership," he said.

Zuma's spokesman, Mac Maharaj, suggested that questions be directed to the ANC.

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said the ruling party was not having "sleepless nights" over the league's planned action. "If they march for jobs for the youth ... for free education for youth, [how] is that a march against [the government]?" said Mantashe.

Youth league spokesman Floyd Shivambu said only "narrow-minded people and factionalists" would see the campaign as an attempt to undermine Zuma.

"Even if there was Jacob Zuma, Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki or Kgalema Motlanthe ... if there is an objective reality of youth unemployment and poverty and unequal distribution of land, the league would raise these concerns as we are doing now," said Shivambu.

In another blow to Malema yesterday, the youth league in KwaZulu-Natal broke ranks with his leadership and threw its weight behind Zuma for re-election as ANC president in 2012. The Malema camp wants Zuma and Mantashe replaced by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe and Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula respectively.

But the provincial chairman, Mthandeni Dlungwane, distanced his executive from Malema. "[We remain] loyal to the resolution of the [provincial] congress that elected us to support President Zuma for a second term," a statement said.