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Embattled ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema is prepared for anything – including going to jail should it come to that – as the league’s battle to unseat the current ANC leadership heats up.

Yesterday he addressed the league’s lekgotla in Pretoria, telling delegates this could well be the last time he spoke to them as youth league leader, urging them to keep pushing for the nationalisation of the mines and redistribution of land, and for regime change in the ruling party.

Malema said he was aware that some senior ANC leaders were prepared to do everything in their power to get rid of him so that they could be re-elected at the ANC’s elective conference in Mangaung in December.

He urged the so-called young lions to remain focused, even in his absence.

NO SELLING OUT

“We should fight on tirelessly. We must refuse to sell out the interests of the black majority to representatives of white monopoly capital in the ANC,” he said.

Hours later, the deputy president of both the ANC and the country, Kgalema Motlanthe, took to the podium to publicly express his views for the first time.

He urged the youth league to take their plight up with ANC leaders in a veiled criticism of the mother body – but warned them to do so in a discplined way in the spirit of both the league and the ANC.

“(There) are strong grounds for accusing the ANC of failing the youth league,” said Motlanthe to applause from youth league delegates.

He told delegates to go to “your mother (ANC and say) we adopted and resolved… and here they are and wait for an opportunity to discuss them”.

But delegates respond-ed by saying that they had submitted their conference resolutions to the ANC, to which Motlanthe responded: “If that’s the case, then say it to ANC directly.”

Motlanthe’s reception yesterday was in stark contrast to the frosty reception given to Mantashe, who arrived just after delegates had been singing for the former ANC youth league leader, Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula, to replace him. The league also wants Mothlanthe to replace Zuma.

Mantashe was there to deliver his report on the relationship between the mother body and the league.

Malema and league delegates leapt to their feet as one when Mothlanthe arrived, jumping up and down in excitement as Malema introduced him as “the future of South Africa”.

Earlier in the day Malema – who faces a five-year suspension from the party – urged the delegates not to lose focus in the struggle for economic freedom in our lifetime, even if he was no longer there.

“I was telling the treasure-general (Pule Mabe) that this just might be my farewell speech. It’s important that what is said is written down and recorded in the history books of the ANC youth league and the ANC,” said Malema.

“VICTORY IS CERTAIN”

“We are now preparing for our lives outside the ANC and possibly in prison. Personally this has been a painful period in our lives and our families have been attacked by forces opposed to us. However, we are inspired by the spirit of ‘Asijiki’. Victory is certain, we shall overcome,” he said.

“Let us go and mobilise structures in the ANC to appreciate the simple truth that we need to move faster and that we need more decisive and sophisticated leadership to understand the current phase of our struggle.”

At the end of the three-day legkotla today the youth league was expected to resolve that, in the event that Malema’s suspension does take effect, it would rally behind him in a show of unity, despite the internal succession battle.

On Thursday, the league’s national executive committee was said to have decided that Malema, with the backing of the league, would exhaust all internal ANC processes in his fight for his political life.

Malema stressed yesterday that he would never take the ANC to court.

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