Besieged Zuma 'fears coup by youth league'

President Jacob Zuma is under siege and a sudden decision to stop the election of a new ANC Youth League leadership appears to have been influenced by fears of the league being used to stage a rebellion against him next year.

Zuma caused confusion in and outside the ruling party this week when he told delegates at a youth league consultative conference that the ANC "is in trouble", has "been shaken" and needs to "take a look at itself".

It was the first time that a president of the ANC has publicly spoken so candidly about the weaknesses in the ruling party.

However, ANC national executive committee members who attended a three-day meeting last weekend confirm that what Zuma said at the league's conference was in line with what he had expressed behind closed doors with them.

NEC members who spoke on condition of anonymity said Zuma, in his political report, painted the ANC as a party that was "under siege" from opposition parties, civil society organisations and the media.

"In his political overview, the president said the ANC was under attack from the international NGOs, the liberal media and opposition parties that have ganged up against the ANC in parliament," said an NEC member.

Zuma's remarks came at a time when opposition parties were putting unprecedented pressure on him to appear before parliament and answer for his role in the spending of R246-million on his private homestead in Nkandla.

At the youth league conference, he told delegates that the ANC and its youth wing had been shaken.

"We admit that the organisation is in trouble," he said, and added: "There are many people who would want the ANC to disappear."

But his fears appear not limited to outside opposition.

Party insiders believe that the decision by Zuma and other ANC officials to forbid youth league delegates from electing new leaders this week was influenced by a suspicion that the winning faction would be used as a springboard for a rebellion at the ANC's national general council in June.

An ANC leader campaigning for the election of former league treasurer Pule Mabe as its new president said Zuma and other ANC officials were suspicious of Mabe because of his past close ties with Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema.

He said there were fears within the ANC that Mabe and his supporters had financial backing from forces that are opposed to Zuma and want to use next year's general council to stir up a rebellion.

"But [the rebellion] is inevitable as people will ask questions about the state of the organisation at the general council," said the ANC leader.

Mabe would not be eligible for the position if the election is held after his 35th birthday on March 19.

Although ANC national general councils are not elective, they can be used by leaders to test their support ahead of a national conference.

In 2005, the youth league used the national general council to rebel against then president Thabo Mbeki and launch its campaign to have Zuma elected as president.

Although he benefited from the 2005 rebellion, Zuma this week described the youth league's behaviour at the time as having been a mistake and said party leaders now regretted not dealing with it then.

"There are mistakes that have happened in this glorious movement since 2005 which must not repeat themselves," Zuma said.

ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa denied that delegates were prevented from voting because the party feared a revolt, but confirmed that the ANC did not want a youth league that would assume the status of "kingmakers".

"What the president highlighted was a candid, honest account of the challenges faced by the youth league, the ANC and the alliance," said Kodwa.

"In 2005 there emerged tendencies that sought to define the ANC Youth League of today as kingmakers in the ANC.

"This included people who, post-Polokwane - where Zuma was elected party president - claimed the product [Zuma] was theirs.

"The organisation at that moment should have said no," said Kodwa.

"The successive leadership of the youth league believed that ... the sole reason of the existence of the youth league is to define the leadership of the ANC. That, over time, got [into] minds of members, that 'We are the makers' both of history and of leaders of the ANC," said Kodwa, who was himself a youth league spokesman from 2004 to 2008.

shobas@sundaytimes.co.za