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The party’s national disciplinary committee (NDC) decided to summarily suspend him on Tuesday night, and served him with a suspension letter yesterday morning, party sources said.
The suspension kicks in immediately and bars him from attending any ANC and youth league events.
This decision is separate from the appeal hearing in which Malema is involved, against his expulsion from the ruling party.
The ANC’s constitution allows the NDC, “in exceptional circumstances”, to suspend a member without a hearing.
In a statement, NDC chairman Derek Hanekom said the committee had considered the nature and seriousness of Malema’s utterances during an ANC centenary lecture at the University of the Witwatersrand last week.
Malema said: “It is under President Zuma that we have seen the youth of the ANC being traumatised, being expelled from their own home. It is under President Zuma we have seen a critical voice being suppressed. We have seen under President Zuma, democracy being replaced with dictatorship.”
Mr Hanekom said the NDC was satisfied that this utterance constituted “a very serious violation of the ANC constitution and that the institution of disciplinary action, as provided for in rule 25.3, and temporary suspension of comrade Malema, in terms of rule 25.12(c), of the ANC constitution is warranted”.
Earlier yesterday, Business Day reported party sources as saying the ANC’s top brass had pulled out of a plan to kick Malema out of the party.
A source said there was a plan to suspend Malema and youth league spokesman Floyd Shivambu summarily for last week’s comments.
Weekend newspapers published articles penned by Shivambu, also criticising ANC leaders.
Addressing journalists on Tuesday on behalf of the party’s “top six” officials, ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said recent remarks were “meant to portray the national officials as disunited as well as competing against each other for positions within the organisation”.
He said: “We wish to state at the outset that the national officials of the ANC are at one with regard to any matters of discipline within the ANC as well as action taken as informed by the ANC constitution. We remain loyal to all decisions we were part of.”
Members of the party had used its centenary celebrations “to divide the ANC along narrow ethnic and racial lines as well as to insult and denigrate the leadership of the ANC, its values and principles”, Mantashe said.
He said the leaders around Zuma took offence because Malema likened them to “dwarves” who blindly followed a bad leader.
“The assertion made . . . by Julius Malema, that new ideas are suppressed and that the present leadership of the ANC is dictatorial and does not appreciate new ideas, is not only disingenuous but a deliberate falsehood,” he said, adding that calling Zuma a dictator was an insult.
“It’s not an insult directed at Jacob Zuma; it’s directed at us – we can’t think for ourselves,” Mantashe said. “It’s a serious insult directed to all of us. The brazen and often rude and crude rhetoric to detract from real issues facing our youth does nothing to add value to the integrity of the ANC and its leagues.
“The ANC discourages the elevation of individuals and personalities above the organisation; this inevitably leads to the creation of personality cults, which hamper collective decision making.”
Mantashe said it was reckless of youth league leaders to carry on discussing the ANC’s December elections, when the party had decided to open nominations only in October.
Shivambu said on radio on Tuesday that Zuma would not be re-elected in Mangaung.
“It is reckless and very careless to talk like that on the election of an organisation that is 100 years old,” Mantashe said. “If we opened the (leadership) discussion in January, there will be no application of minds on policy documents . . . we are opening nominations in October. We’ll tear each other apart.”
The Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans’ Association called on Tuesday for Malema to be “summarily expelled” for the disdain he showed for ANC leaders. The league responded by accusing the veterans of wanting to be on TV to impress their girlfriends.
Meanwhile, the suspension Malema yesterday was a strategic move by the ANC’s top officials, said political analysts.
“Malema’s suspension is an attempt to show they (ANC) mean business and intend to try and rule,” Steven Friedman said.
Eusebius McKaiser said it was clear that President Jacob Zuma was trying to derail Malema.
“The biggest point is that Zuma clearly wants a second term (as president) and wants to derail him (Malema). This is an attempt to make it more difficult for ANC leaders to be seen with Julius Malema,” he said.
During a centenary lecture at the University of the Witwatersrand on Friday, Malema said: “It is under President Zuma that we have seen the youth of the ANC being traumatised, being expelled from their own home.
“It is under President Zuma we have seen a critical voice being suppressed. We have seen under President Zuma, democracy being replaced with dictatorship.”
Malema is appealing his expulsion from the ANC for sowing division in the party and for bringing it into disrepute. The appeals hearing takes place on April 12.
Although ANC top officials insist there is unity within their ranks, both Friedman and McKaiser said they were not convinced.
“The problem is that you can’t apply rules like this when you are still pretending you don’t have a contest for leadership,” said Friedman.
He said the ANC was “pretending” that people within the organisation were not contesting for positions at the party’s elective conference in Mangaung in December.
“You can get rid of Malema and he will probably go, but he’s not the problem,” said Friedman.
He said he did not see the point of having Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe and ANC treasurer general Mathews Phosa attend a press briefing in Johannesburg on Tuesday when they could not voice their opinions.
“No one believes in the show of unity, because people cannot openly express themselves. What is the point of having Motlanthe and Phosa appear with the president when you can’t ask them if they are campaigning against him,” said Friedman.
Malema and the ANCYL had continuously voiced their preference for Motlanthe to replace Zuma and for Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula to replace Gwede Mantashe as the ANC’s secretary general.
McKaiser said it annoyed Zuma that Malema was backing Motlanthe.
“Zuma is trying to get a grip on his own reelection,” he said.
It would now be more difficult for those such as Motlanthe, Mbalula and Phosa who are all suspected to be strong allies of the ANCYL leader — to “benefit covertly” by being seen with Malema on a public platform.
Friedman said Malema was irrelevant.
“There are factions . . . Zuma’s problem was that people were speculating that his deputy (Motlanthe) and treasurer-general (Phosa) were campaigning against him.
“He (Zuma) had to display unity and had to show that he was in charge of the organisation. This was an attempt to show that he is in charge,” said Friedman.
McKaiser said if the ANC’s national disciplinary committee of appeal (NDCA) upheld Malema’s expulsion, the new charge for his comments on Friday would become null and void. — Business Day/timeslive.
“Why not just wait till next week? Well, by invoking a summary suspension they (the ANC) are able to prevent him from attending any meetings, from making statements and participating in Limpopo’s provincial structures,” said McKaiser.
“The ANC and top six are so fed up with him they want him immediately neutralised, and don’t want to wait a week.”
He said that although the NDCA still had to confirm Malema’s expulsion, it was like any other legal process, which meant new charges could be brought against him. —
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