Businesses and schools along the 60km route from central Johannesburg to Pretoria have warned people to stay clear of the more than 5000 protesters expected to take part in the march.

The league's president, Julius Malema, is expected to lead the march for "economic freedom" at 8am from Beyers Naude Square to the Chamber of Mines, both in the Johannesburg CBD, and then on to the JSE in Sandton.

More than 1000 police and metro police officers will be deployed to control the youth league protesters, who became violent outside the ANC's Luthuli House headquarters, in the Johannesburg CBD, during the disciplinary hearing of Malema and his top brass in August. Businesses lost millions of rands during the protest.

Today's march is seen as part of the leadership battle raging within the ANC ahead of its elective congress in Mangaung next year.

Last night, party stalwart Winnie Madikizela-Mandela - who earlier testified for Malema at his disciplinary hearing - upped the ante by calling on the ruling party to elect a new leadership.

"As we celebrate the centenary year of the ANC next year, we hope that we won't recycle leadership and we will have new leadership," Madikizela-Mandela said at a function in Johannesburg.

The youth league has also called for leadership change.

Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi also tore into the ANC-led government yesterday, saying President Jacob Zuma's cabinet was caught in an economic "stalemate" and that there was "paralysis at the top".

After marching on the JSE, the youth league protesters will hold a night vigil at the Caledonian stadium in Pretoria tonight, and will march to the Union Buildings tomorrow to hand "a final memorandum" to the Presidency.

Business Unity SA has called on the youth league to ensure that the march does not have a negative impact on the economy.

Companies in Johannesburg and Pretoria have asked employees to cancel meetings that might clash with the protest. Some companies in Sandton are to let staff go home early. The major roads that will be affected include Simmonds and Rissik streets in central Johannesburg, Oxford Road through Killarney, Rosebank and Sandton, and the R101 to Pretoria.

In Pretoria, marchers will use Nelson Mandela Drive and Pretorius, Church and Vermeulen streets tomorrow.

Gwede Mantashe, the ANC secretary-general, said yesterday the party supported the march but he asked Malema for an assurance that it would not be disruptive or embarrass the ANC.

"The leadership of the ANC Youth League took full responsibility for the march and whatever consequences that may arise therefrom. There was an agreement that the youth league should do all in its power to avoid anything that will embarrass the movement," he said.

Mantashe did not dismiss the possibility that disciplinary steps would be taken if things went awry. He hinted that there had been attempts to cancel the march at a meeting on Monday night.

"After an intense engagement, the parties [ANC and the youth league] accepted as reality [that] it was too late to stop the march . and stopping it would cause more confusion."

The state-funded National Youth Development Agency, which is supporting today's march, stirred controversy in August, when its chairman, Andile Lungisa, vowed to "close every street in South Africa".

"If there is a cheese in your fridge, they are going to take it. On the slowness of government, we will march; we will close all the streets," Lungisa said at the time.

Cosatu will not join today's march but was not opposed to its agenda.

The Young Communist League, whose jobs summit started yesterday and runs until Saturday, will also not support the march.

Analysts said the march had divided the ANC-led alliance, with both the SA Communist Party and Cosatu publicly speaking out against it.

Aubrey Matshiqi, political analyst at the Centre for Policy Studies, said: "Firstly, the march has divided opinion among the alliance, to the extent that the SACP and the Young Communist League have come out against the march. One of the problems we have is that some leaders of the alliance are succeeding in turning their personal hatred into national and organisational issues, and when they do that their supporters and the rest of us outside these organisations have to focus narrowly on these events."

Matshiqi said that neither the success nor the failure of the march would solve South Africa's economic and developmental problems.

"What we must remember is that what will not change is the reality that developmental and economic indicators are poor for poor people, and particularly young female black people, and that reality is not going to change irrespective of what happens [today] and tomorrow."

• Plans to transport Eastern Cape ANCYL supporters to today's march were derailed yesterday when a sponsor withdrew, leaving 400 members stranded in Port Elizabeth. League supporters from Mthatha and East London were picked up as planned and, by 6pm, at least five buses had left for Gauteng. - Additional reporting by Andile Ndlovu and Sapa