As the war of words between the ANC Youth League and the South African Communist Party - of which Cronin is deputy general secretary - grew yesterday, ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe refused to comment on whether the ANC would take disciplinary steps against Malema.
Mantashe also refused to tell the Sunday Times whether Malema's language broke the party's code of conduct or whether it was acceptable in view of recent warnings by party president Jacob Zuma against what he said was "an unhealthy tendency to label comrades ... even to call each other derogatory names".
Responding to Cronin's discussion paper on nationalisation of mines - which partly criticised Malema's view - Malema responded by saying "no amount of bickering from both right and fake-left forces will diminish our efforts to ensure mines and other strategic sectors of the South African economy are nationalised".
"We also do not need the permission of white political messiahs to think," he said.
Malema's language, according to party insiders, was in stark contrast to warnings a month ago from Zuma that unhealthy engagements "detract from the purpose of debate, which is to critically examine differing perspectives. Rather than impugn the motives of comrades, we should concentrate instead on exposing every view to scrutiny, regardless of who expresses it."
A week later he again told the party's national executive committee members not to "allow the ANC to be undermined by discipline".
Hinting at activating the party's disciplinary processes against offenders, Zuma said the ANC "should be able to act where we need to act, and decisively".
Young Communist League leader Buti Manamela yesterday said Malema's comments breached the protocols of engagement agreed to by the alliance.
He said Malema's outbursts "are part of a tendency of misinterpreting being brave about views and being disrespectful".
"We are concerned that reasoning is now substituted with insults," Manamela said.
Cronin told the Sunday Times he was "completely unfazed" by Malema's racial attack and would not be asking for action against him.
He said he would respond to Malema's arguments on the merits and not on the tone of his response.
"Nationalisation is just a part of the debate. It's not a two-way debate between the SACP and the ANC Youth League, it's not about personalities and it's not about black and white," Cronin said.
Commenting on Malema's insistence that black youth did not need the permission of "a white messiah" to think, Cronin said: "I couldn't agree more. We don't need messiahs of any description."
Although Mantashe refused to speak on the matter yesterday, the Sunday Times has seen a paper he drafted which was presented to the ANC alliance summit last week and in which he cautioned against the personalising of debates.
"The public posture taken by leaders of components of the alliance is sometimes worse than positions taken by opposition parties," he said.
The youth league remained defiant yesterday, challenging the SACP to clarify whether Cronin's views "represent the official positions of the communist party".
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