South Africa's ruling ANC kicked out its firebrand Youth League leader, Julius Malema, from the party for five years on Thursday after finding him guilty of dividing and bringing the 99-year-old liberation movement into disrepute. The decision to send him into the political wilderness dealt a major blow to the career of Malema, whose push to nationalise mines in the world's biggest platinum producer has unnerved investors.
Derek Hanekom, head of the African National Congress disciplinary panel, said Malema had been found guilty of causing divisions in the party. "Ill-discipline is not a cure for frustration," Hanekom told a news conference, with committee members saying it was one of the harshest punishments handed down to a party member.
"(His) careless, negligent or reckless pronouncements and utterances were a deviation of established and ongoing ANC policy and had the effect of embarrassing and bringing the organisation into disrepute within and beyond the borders of South Africa," Hanekom said. South African stocks extended gains after news of the suspension of Malema, 30. The rand also firmed slightly after the announcement.
Malema told a rally in his home base to the north of Johannesburg that he would appeal and the ANC should brace itself for a bruising battle. "We won't apologise. The gloves are off. Let us confront them because their intention is very clear. They want to destroy the ANC Youth League," Malema told supporters at a university campus in Polokwane, 320 km (200 miles) north of Johannesburg, City Press reported.
The ANC has a solitary body to hear the appeal and Malema will stay in office until it reaches its decision. If the body, staffed with many senior ANC members who have been critical of Malema, upholds the verdict, the youth leader must step down. He can then try to have the ANC's National Executive Committee review the case. But the body headed by his foe, President Jacob Zuma, is unlikely to reinstate Malema.