Beleaguered Juju reaches out to ANC

African National Congress Youth League President Julius Malema has warned South African President Jacob Zuma that the ANCYL has been infiltrated and that his comrades have started turning against him.

He says the youth league conferences are being split and points to events in the Limpopo and the Eastern Cape as evidence of the insurrection. More sinister, according to Malema, is the fact that there is a businessman — who is to be arrested — funding the party rebels.

He claims that the reason for this third force is simple, weaken the youth league, the ANC’s first line of defence, and you can destroy the party.

In context this might be a lot easier to explain.

Malema’s own election as president of the ANCYL was against a backdrop of bitter in-fighting and mudslinging which culminated in the butt-showing conference in Bloemfontein. In fact the delegates conducted themselves so poorly that even Zuma was forced to take delegates to task.

As such warring factions within the ANCYL, during elections, is nothing new and of course Malema is currently running for a second term. In addition, addressing the president on disruptions at ANCYL conferences is like telling Eskom your lights have gone off and expecting them to get excited about it.

As far as arresting a businessman for sponsoring “the rebels” goes it will be of major interest to find out what the basis is therefore. What are they going to charge him for?

The most important issue I’ve saved for last ie that the motive behind “these” disruptions — how do they distinguish them from other ANCYL conferences ending in chaos — is a sinister plot to weaken the youth league and thereby destroy the ANC.

Without boring the pants off everyone by recapping all the events that have led to Malema being disciplined by the ANC, which pose a far bigger threat to the wellbeing of the ruling party than any weakening of the ANCYL would ever do, I find it strange that the youth league president has failed to point out why his fall from power would weaken the youth movement.

As things stand they are alienating the left by incessant attacks on Cosatu and the SACP and causing disquiet in the centre with their approach to inter alia Zimbabwe, Afrikaners and business.

It would seem that a new youth league president might be just the tonic the party and the country needs right now.

Moreover Malema fails to set out what exactly this third force stands for, other than replacing Juju at the top of the pile.

Of course by moving the fight away from an attack on his position — for ineptitude and turning the ANCYL into an ill-disciplined rabble — and making it into something sinister aimed at destroying the ANC he hopes to call on support from above in ending this growing resistance to his leadership.

Unfortunately for him it is hard to see why anyone, other than those with vested interest in his support at a later date, would want to intervene against the possibility of someone else being elected to his position.

Whoever it is they can only have more respect for the ANC, the alliance and the image of the ANCYL than the current president.

Let the kids play on their own — they’ll find their own solution.