President Jacob Zuma has defended controversial ANC Youth League president Julius Malema again, saying he will not be forced into shouting him down.
Speaking to the Mail & Guardian this week, Zuma said: "I haven’t said that he is right but I’ve said he has a right to raise issues. If we stop Malema you would say that apartheid has come back.
"People must differentiate between private views and policy. I had to clarify that in the UK last week on nationalisation of mines. There is no president of the youth league who can just declare policy. Even the president of the ANC can’t do that."
Asked why he had not expressed his own views on the subject and why he did not make it clear that he disagreed with Malema, Zuma said: "I have done so. I have said this is not government policy. I have said many a time that we speak to Julius.
"People want us to shout him down. Why must we do that? Even the late youth league president [Peter Mokaba] used to sing One Farmer, One Bullet. Even Madiba, who is today an icon, was one of the most vocal youth league [leaders]."
'Our business is to help them mature'
In an apparent vote of support for the police deputy minister, Fikile Mbalula, who is at the centre of a campaign to oust ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe, Zuma pointed out how Mbalula had grown since his firebrand days as youth league leader.
"Mbalula used to be very vocal some time ago but you no longer hear from him. Our business is to help them mature."
Malema, he insisted, had extraordinary leadership qualities. "When I accompanied him to Limpopo to open a church for which he had fundraised, I said there's a leader in him for the future; a man who cares about people and who can take initiative.
"Julius is not a big deal. People can't have the same style. To us there is no crisis."
Zuma confirmed that Malema had reported to him his concerns that the South African Revenue Service (Sars) was targeting him and other Zuma supporters.
But Zuma said Malema spoke to him "politically" and did not necessarily expect action from him.
"He can't lay charges with me. I am not a police station."
Zuma will appeal again this weekend at the national executive committee meeting for ANC members to stop talking about the 2012 ANC succession race. The ANC has been racked by fresh divisions since Malema and his supporters made it clear that they wanted Mantashe removed at the 2012 centenary conference of the party.
Malema repeated the call this week without mentioning Mantashe by name when he said there is one member of the top six who has isolated himself.
Zuma said he had made the point in the ANC national executive committee (NEC) that it was too early to talk of 2012.
"I will this weekend once again make that point. It is uncalled for. It can't be right."
Taking rumours with a pinch of salt
Amid conspiracy theories and anxious rumours among the ANC leadership, affiliates of Cosatu have said they are aware of a plot to remove Zuma as ANC president at the national general council (NGC) in September. But Zuma said he would not take the rumours seriously because he did not know where they came from.
"I don’t know how concrete that information is. I don’t need to react to every information that is spread about me. The NGC is not an electing thing. It does not deal with leadership."
The last NGC in 2005 laid the foundation for the removal of then-president Thabo Mbeki. It was there that ANC members first protested against the firing of Zuma by Mbeki and started a fight-back campaign that resulted in his elevation as president two years later.
Disagreements over economic policy have troubled the tripartite alliance in recent weeks, with Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi sharply critical of the 2010 budget and president S’dumo Dlamini calling for the axing of Zuma’s advisers.
Zuma insisted that there was no major fallout with Cosatu and the SACP.
"This is not a difficult thing. The issue with the party [SACP] started when Malema said we should nationalise mines and at the special conference of the SACP he was booed. It is not as if things are falling apart."
He said tensions with Cosatu only emerged when the trade union federation criticised the budget and the State of the Nation address.
Cosatu had to look after working-class interests but "the ANC has to look after the interests of all the classes".
The ANC would discuss with Cosatu the subsidising of young people to enter the job market, which the trade union feels could lead to a two-tier labour system.
He said there was debate about whether Cosatu's call for lifestyle audits, would add value: "There is no crisis," Zuma insisted.
