Malema's plan for ANC

Julius Malema's re-election as ANC Youth League president has officially kicked off the ruling party's succession battle, with the league now looking for "courageous" ANC leaders who are willing to implement its radical policy proposals.

Delegates attending the league's 24th national congress in Midrand, Gauteng, are today expected to adopt a set of policies that would set them on a collision course with President Jacob Zuma's government and the ANC.

Some of the policy resolutions expected to be adopted today are:

• A call on the state to expropriate land from white farmers without compensation;
• The nationalisation of the country's mines; and
• A foreign policy shift that would see South Africa take a more hostile line towards Western powers and side with African leaders who are at loggerheads with "imperialist" countries.

Senior youth league leaders told the Sunday Times that Malema would use the radical programme as a rallying point as he pushed for changes in the ANC leadership ahead of the ruling party's national conference in December next year.

Malema has already questioned whether Zuma and his leadership were bold enough to introduce drastic policy changes to benefit the poor, black majority.

However, the ANC's senior leaders are not going to take the league's challenge lying down and demonstrated this when Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Derek Hanekom - who was at the conference - wrote on Twitter that he will "never" support the expropriation of land without compensation.

Opening the conference on Thursday, Zuma also made it clear that he was not in favour of the league's approach.

But having been re-elected president unopposed, following his challenger Lebogang Maile's last-minute withdrawal, Malema's hand has now been strengthened.

A youth league leader close to Malema said that Malema's re-election was an endorsement of the programme to effect a leadership change in the ANC.

"No one is safe. There are radical policy positions on the table and we know that some people do not agree with them. Even the president of the ANC does not agree with them and you can see this with the kinds of decisions taken at a foreign policy level, and his statements on land issues.

"We will not compromise on those positions and we are only going forward with those leaders who agree with our programme," the youth leader said.

Although the league is not expected to pronounce on who it wants as ANC president after December next year - as this would be in contravention of a standing party instruction on its structures not to speak about the matter - delegates are expected to announce that they will support Malema's predecessor and Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula's bid to replace Gwede Mantashe as ANC secretary-general.

Zuma recently hinted that he wanted a second term when he told a daily newspaper that he would be guided by the ANC on whether to continue for another term. He denied ever saying that he would only serve one term, despite senior ANC leaders having publicly stated that Zuma had said he sought only a single term as president.

Youth league insiders said that the next 18 months to the ANC's congress in December 2012 would be a crucial period as the league would work on the ruling party's structures to drive their campaign for leadership change.

A youth leader said the league sought visionary leadership: "We want to see a situation where we have a strong foreign policy, where we will not be party to attacking fellow African states. We want to see a situation where taking back the land without compensation will be part of government policy."

At a press conference on Friday night, Malema suggested Zuma had not been "sophisticated" enough to realise the intentions of Western powers when he agreed to vote for a no-fly zone over Libya at the UN two months ago.

"We want the ANC leadership to defend Africa, which is suffering from imperialists who seek to colonise Africa (again). If you are a leader and you are not sophisticated you may think they are with you only to find out that they are misleading you. So we ought to be very careful when it comes to the European Union and the USA, because those are the people who are driven by their economic interest in Africa.

"They are bloodthirsty and they are intolerant," said Malema.

Other officials elected alongside Malema were Ronald Lamola as his deputy, Sindiso Magaqa as secretary general with Kenetswe Mosenogi as deputy secretary general and Pule Mabe as treasurer.

The league's congress ends today.