Post date: May 14, 2012 4:11:35 PM
JOHANNESBURG; SOUTH AFRICA (MAY 14, 2012) (REUTERS) - African National Congress (ANC) Youth League former leader Julius Malema told reporters on Monday (May 14) he will not start his own political party because he believes his ANC membership is not over.
Former ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema remains defiant and vows to lead the ANC despite his expulsion.
South Africa's ruling African National Congress expelled Malema from the party in February for violating party rules, causing rifts in the group and bringing the movement into disrepute.
ANC rejected an appeal from Malema, cementing his expulsion from the party last month.
Malema, a vocal Zuma opponent and leader of the party's powerful youth wing, appears to have exhausted all his options after months of appeals since a disciplinary charge last year.
Speaking at a briefing at the National Press Club in Johannesburg Malema said ANC mistreated its most faithful supporters.
"Architects of apartheid, if they apply for the membership of the ANC tomorrow, they are going to be paraded in front of cameras and (they would) say -- these are members of the ANC. But those of us who never killed anybody, those of us who never destroyed any structures of the African National Congress, those of us who committed our lives including our childhood to the African National Congress, we are being rejected today," Malema told reporters.
Malema was accompanied by two allies in the ANC Youth League who also lost similar appeals, but were suspended from the party, not expelled -- Secretary General Sindiso Magaqa and spokesman Floyd Shivambu. Malema said they, and other activists, felt betrayed.
"The ANC has never given up on the rehabilitation of the youth. What we see today is a different thing. The ANC has always believed in the rehabilitation of youth and deliberate program of building future leaders from the ANC Youth League but we are being rejected after being so loyal to the organisation. We will never give up because it is not the ANC which is doing these things to us, it is the individual," said Malema.
Malema, one of the best orators in the ANC, has won wide popularity among poor South African youth with his calls for nationalisation of mines and seizure of white-owned land.
He was suspended from the ANC last year for sowing division in the party, but was allowed to stay in his post pending the outcome of his appeals.
Malema has been increasingly critical of President Jacob Zuma who faces a re-election race for the head of the ANC at the end of this year.
Following the charges, Malema ratcheted up his criticism of Zuma and even mocked him at public rallies. The ANC retaliated by turning its original sentence of a five-year suspension into expulsion. Analysts say, Malema's removal may help clear a path for Zuma to win a second term as ANC leader.
Although not an elected official, Malema was seen as something of a king-maker within the party given his large support base among young people, as well as the youth league's reputation as a training ground for future leaders.