African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma would lead the organisation from prison if he was ever arrested, ANC Youth League president Julius Malema said on Wednesday.
Malema reiterated at the ANC provincial conference in the Free State that Zuma would lead the ANC in its election campaign for 2009.
”If you arrest him, he will lead us from prison,” said Malema.
However, he said the country should spare itself the embarrassment. Malema repeated that there was no case against Zuma and that the ANC president would be South Africa’s next president.
Zuma is currently involved in a legal battle with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) regarding his indictment on charges that include allegations of racketeering, corruption, money laundering and fraud.
Malema also criticised party members in the Free State who had taken the party to court in recent months. He said the ANC did not need them.
”You must reject these people who take the ANC to court,” he told the delegates.
Malema threw his weight behind current ANC chairperson in the Free State Ace Magashule for re-election, because he had ”demonstrated” that he could unite the party in the province.
He said the ANC Youth League would do anything in its power to make sure that the ANC stayed united and repeated his words that he would fight and eliminate anybody who stood in his way.
”For that we are prepared to die,” Malema said while the conference delegates applauded.
Unity
The ANC in the Free State should not be managed by the courts but by its structures at ground level, ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said at the conference.
Mantashe told about 2 000 party delegates in Parys: ”This conference will take this province from an era of being managed by the Free State division of the Supreme Court to one where the structures of the movement run the organisation.”
Mantashe reiterated the ANC’s earlier decision that those who disrupted, fought and took the organisation to court without using internal processes must be suspended within one month.
He said it must be done to defend the integrity of the ANC.
Mantashe said those that ”drag the organisation through the mud”, such as taking the party to court continuously, could not claim that they loved the ANC.
Various ANC members in the Free State had in recent months filed court applications to challenge their suspensions from the party, and there had been allegations of irregularities at branch and regional committee meetings in the run-up to the provincial conference.
The party on Tuesday successfully defended a court application to stop the provincial conference.
Mantashe urged ANC members to put their pride and selfish interests aside ”all the time” when party interests were at stake, otherwise they could not be called ”cadres”.
He said the organisation had for far too long allowed it to be used as a playground for factionalism.
Mantashe cautioned the party not to discipline members without proper reason. ”When we seek to enforce discipline, we must listen to those who want to talk to us.
”We must never suppress views otherwise they would whisper.”
He urged ANC members to project unity and not just claim it.
”You are here irrespective of who you voted for at Polokwane,” he said, adding there was no such thing as a Thabo Mbeki and Zuma camp in the ANC. — Sapa