Motlanthe gets public support for top ANC job

The appearance of the two, before a crowd of thousands wearing T-shirts bearing images of Mr Motlanthe, is the strongest indication to date that the ANC’s succession debate is gaining momentum, and that the party is losing its battle to keep it under wraps.
ANC policy holds that only the face of the incumbent president should appear on party paraphernalia, including T-shirts, and the party officially discourages lobbying or jockeying for position.

Mr Motlanthe’s message to the youth league rally, that the ANC needed a “militant, creative and determined” league, will anger those in the party set on ridding it of Mr Malema by expelling him, among them President Jacob Zuma, who was abroad on Sunday, in South Korea.
The youth league is at the forefront of a campaign to install Mr Motlanthe as ANC president in place of Mr Zuma, when the party holds elections in December.
In another sign of an attempt to inculcate unity amid the divisions of the succession race, ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe yesterday said the party would crack down on dissenters who derided leaders — also in songs. Anti-Zuma songs were sung at Sunday’s rally.

However, Mr Mantashe defended Mr Motlanthe’s right to address rallies organised by the league. Even so, Mr Motlanthe sharing a stage with Mr Malema will be awkward for the ANC. Mr Malema remains president of the league pending his appeal against a decision to expel him.
Speaking at the rally on Sunday, Mr Malema announced a change in approach, saying that he would seek redress in the courts if expelled. So far he had consistently rejected the idea of taking legal action against the party.

“I said I would not go to court, but now I have decided to do so. I need no mandate, and act as an individual whose rights have been violated,” he said.
However, Mr Malema called on the crowd not to abandon the ANC, saying the party was the only hope for the country’s poor. While individuals would come and go, the ANC would continue.

“I will never be welcome in the ANC. I have been fired in the ANC. But I have no problem with  that.
“I did what I believed in and I did it on my own. I was not told by anyone to do anything,” he said.
“I have not been chased from heaven, but from the ANC by a faction that can only do so as they currently have power.”

The youth league was being victimised by its own leaders, Mr Malema said. He would not accept being victimised by anyone.
“There is no longer a youth league of the ANC. We are a former self. They have succeeded in killing us,” he said.
Mr Motlanthe said revolution was deliberate and methodical. He could barely be heard above the din of the crowd.

“The ANC has no use for a passive youth league. We need our youth league to be militant, creative and determined. When the call is given, the youth must answer,” Mr Motlanthe said.
The youth had to be afforded space to generate new ideas. “It is the ANC’s duty to show . . . the youth league if it strays from the path,” he said. — Businessday.