JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's firebrand youth leader Julius Malema has appealed his five-year suspension from the ruling African National Congress, his lawyer said Friday.
Malema and five other top leaders of the ANC Youth League who were slapped with a range of penalties for party disciplinary offences filed appeals ahead of the Thursday night deadline, advocate Dali Mpofu told the Sapa news agency.
"Yes, he (Malema) did submit it," Mpofu said. "All the others also filed appeals."
Malema has accused the ruling party of leading a witch hunt against him to silence his calls to nationalise mines and seize white-owned land to redistribute to blacks.
Malema was convicted on November 10 by an ANC disciplinary hearing of provoking divisions in the party and bringing it into disrepute by calling for the ouster of the democratically elected government of neighbouring Botswana.
The appeals panel is headed by Cyril Ramaphosa, a stalwart of the anti-apartheid movement and an architect of South Africa's constitution.
ANC spokesman Keith Khoza said Thursday that the appeals panel could begin its work from next week, after a previously scheduled meeting of the party's top leadership this weekend in Bloemfontein.
Malema has refused to quietly bow out, travelling to Bloemfontein to rally his supporters ahead of the party's National Executive Committee meeting.
"We are going to be suspended. We do not care. We are not about to be sell outs. We are ready for anything," Malema told his supporters Thursday.
Malema became president of the Youth League three years ago and quickly emerged as a key ally for President Jacob Zuma, who won 2009 elections after orchestrating the party's ouster of former president Thabo Mbeki the year before.
But since then, Malema's allegiances shifted and he began praising Mbeki as a better leader than Zuma -- remarks that resulted in one of his convictions by the party.
He was also convicted of disrupting a national ANC meeting, and of bringing the party into disrepute by calling for "regime change" in democratic Botswana.
Youth League spokesman Floyd Shivambu was also suspended for three years for bringing the party into disrepute with the Botswana statements as well as for swearing at a journalist.
Four other top Youth League officials were found guilty on various charges, but were granted suspended sentences -- meaning they retain their membership unless they are convicted of a new offence.
The appeals process could take more than a year and ultimately end up before the top leadership at the ANC's elective conference in December 2012 in Bloemfontein, where Zuma will seek backing for a second term as president.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.