Malema punishment too soft, says ANC ex-MP

South Africa's ruling African National Congress has been criticised for its handling of disciplinary proceedings against controversial ANC youth leader, Julius Malema. A former ANC Member of Parliament has said the light handling of Malema's conduct speaks to deeper divisions within the party.

AFP

Malema was found guilty of bringing the party into disrepute, having been accused of breaking the party line on Zimbabwe, singing a song about killing white farmers and calling a journalist a "bastard" and chasing him from a press conference.

An ANC disciplinary committee did not punish him, but gave him a 1,000-euro fine and obliged him to make a public apology to the party's leader, President Jacob Zuma.

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Former ANC MP Andrew Feinstein on Julius Malema

Billie O'Kadameri

"As everybody expected, it's really nothing more than a little rap on the knuckles, and will make little difference to his behaviour," said former ANC Member of Parliament Andrew Feinstein.

According to Feinstein, the disciplinary committee's decision speaks to the party's internal conflicts.

"The ANC is now a group of different tendencies and factions, all of whom are grappling for power and the patronage that comes with power."

"Everyone needs to understand the crucial role that Melama plays in what is a very fractured and divided ANC at the moment, and I think it's for that reason that the punishment has been so light."

Feinstein links the outcome to Malema's relationship with party leader and current South African president Jacob Zuma.

"When there were first calls for [Malema's] disciplining, Jacob Zuma refused to act on them, because basically, Malema was crucial to Zuma winning power in the ANC."

With various groups looking to assume leadership at the end of Zuma's term in two years, it is not clear whether it would be someone supported by the trade union movement or by Malema in the ANC Youth League.

"What you're seeing in this whole issue is the beginnings of the succession battle, which again shows just how weak Jacob Zuma is...This complicated factional fighting is really about who will succeed Jacob Zuma."