Sunday Times
*Malema allies in battle**Sibusiso Ngalwa and Thabo Mokone, Sunday Times, Johannesburg, 13 November, 2011*
WITHIN hours of ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema's suspension from the ruling party for ill-discipline, his grip on power within the league was unravelling.
The Sunday Times can reveal that:
* Malema's deputy, Ronald Lamola, allegedly had to be restrained
from assaulting treasurer Pule Mabe. According to witnesses,
Lamola also accused Mabe of "selling out";
* Some youth league NEC members are already planning a future
without Malema;
* Some of the league's top five officials do not want to appeal
the outcome of the disciplinary hearing; and
* None of the senior ANC leaders who backed Malema has publicly
defended him since the five-year suspension was announced.
The altercation between Lamola and Mabe relates to allegations that the
treasurer had been secretly lobbying to become the next youth league
president.
Mabe was also believed to oppose the league backing Malema's planned appeal. The incident took place in the league's offices on the seventh floor of Luthuli House, Johannesburg, on Thursday, after Malema was suspended from the ANC.
"Lamola lost it when he confronted Pule .. that Pule was going around telling people that [the youth league] won't appeal against the disciplinary committee outcome," said a youth league leader, who was at Luthuli House when the incident took place.
But youth league spokeswoman Magdalene Moonsamy denied that the incident had taken place. "It's not true," she said.
When approached for comment, Mabe said there was "no crisis". "We never [had] an altercation, the officials of the youth league are very united and are moving forward as one. We are also hearing [this] from the media," he said.
Malema and Mabe sat side by side at a special NEC meeting held in Benoni yesterday, where they often spoke to one another.
At the meeting, NEC members sang: "In 2012 we will vote for Kgalema ... we will vote for Mbalula."
But the Sunday Times has learnt that before yesterday's session, a group within the NEC was canvassing opinions on a plan to ask Malema to step down.
A member of the youth league's national executive committee said they did not believe they should take the fall for one person.
The committee member, who did not want to be identified, said: "He is not the first person to be suspended ... to be in the cold. But people bounce back. Even his hero, Peter Mokaba, was fired from government as a deputy minister ...
"Former [youth league] president Lulu Johnson was unemployed for years when the league rejected him in 1996 after he disrespected Nelson Mandela on the issue of the Springbok emblem.
"Lulu came back and is now an MP," said the committee member.On Thursday the ANC national disciplinary committee, headed by the Deputy Minister of Science and Technology, Derek Hanekom, announced Malema's five-year suspension from the party for bringing it into disrepute and sowing divisions within the ANC.
The league's spokesman, Floyd Shivambu, was slapped with a three-year suspension.
It is expected that the league's special NEC meeting will emerge with a "collective decision" to appeal Malema's sentence - which will be binding on those officials uneasy about efforts to overturn the suspension.
Malema, Lamola, Mabe, secretary-general Sindiso Magaqa and his deputy, Kenetswe Mosenogi, were suspended from the ANC for two years for barging into a meeting of ANC officials led by President Jacob Zuma. But the five's sentences were suspended for three years on condition they did not commit an offence within that period.
Besides Malema, the other four can continue in their positions.The Sunday Times was told that some feared that the appeals committee - headed by businessman Cyril Ramaphosa - could impose harsher sentences if they appealed.
Hanekom had warned of this on Thursday.Malema's closest allies, such as Sports Minster Fikile Mbalula and ANC stalwart Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, have not spoken publicly since Thursday's ruling.
A Limpopo businessman, who is a close associate of Malema's, said the league president had been "shocked" by the severity of the sentence.
The businessman said Malema's backers had tried to lobby the disciplinary committee and "there were assurances by some of the members on the outcome".
"Hanekom exposed the other NDC members when he said that the judgment was unanimous," the associate said.
Lamola had not responded to questions at the time of going to press. * **From: http://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2011/11/13/malema-allies-in-battle*
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