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JOHANNESBURG. — Comments about expelled ANC Youth League president Julius Malema made by an ANC Gauteng provincial executive committee member do not reflect the party’s views, it said yesterday. “We want to put it on record that the views expressed by the PEC member comrade Panyaza Lesufi are his personal opinions,” ANC Gauteng spokesperson Dumisa Ntuli said in a statement.
On Monday, the Independent Online reported that Lesufi had called on the ANC to review its decision to expel Malema, who now leads the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).
He was quoted as saying: “The ANC still needs a Julius Malema, insomuch as a Julius Malema cannot survive ‘outside of the ANC’, an organisation that made him what he is today.”
Lesufi said he respected the party’s decision to expel Malema two years ago, but that the decision might have been “too harsh”. He was found to have done so by unfavourably comparing the leadership style of President Jacob Zuma to that of former president Thabo Mbeki, and for remarks on bringing about regime change in Botswana. — Sapa.
Online Reporter