Malema suspension gives Zanu-PF a massive political headache

Zanu-PF has been left with a massive throbbing political headache after the five year suspension of the ANC youth league leader Julius Malema, the Daily News reported on Sunday.

In an interview with the newspaper Zanu-PF secretary for administration, Didymus Mutasa acknowledged  the quandary because they sympathised with Malema and remained loyal to him.

"Malema supports Zanu-PF and we support him as well. We have no choice but to sympathise with him. If they (ANC) are chasing him away from the party we will sympathise with him.

"We stand by our position because Malema believed in what Zanu-PF believes in, but we will not interfere with the sovereignty of the ANC because they are independent from us. But we still think that Malema is just and fair in his cause," he said.

In contrast, deputy MDC spokesperson, Thabitha Khumalo, hailed Malema's lengthy suspension and described the fiery ANC Youth League president as destructive.

"Malema is not a peace builder at all. To us as a political party we view him as destruction and someone you cannot work with. The fact that he had the guts to come here and insult other principals to the Global Political Agreement (GPA) - which his president, both from a country and party perspective, is the mediator - is a sign that he has no respect for his own party's constitution.

"This should serve as a lesson to all other individuals that they should respect their leaders and be guided by their party constitutions," Khumalo said.

So, how and why does Malema's suspension cause problems for Mugabe and Zanu-PF?

A well-placed source within the ANC said on Friday that Malema had an "unhealthy" relationship with Zanu-PF - which had caused Zuma, the ANC and the South African government "immense" problems in their efforts to help bring normalcy to politics in Zimbabwe.

"There have essentially been two problems with regard to Julius' untenable position and relationship with Zanu-PF."

"The first one is that he was perceived to be pushing a personal agenda in which there have been allegations that he was being given Marange diamond funds to confuse Pretoria, the ANC and South Africans in general in their interactions with Zimbabwe.

"Secondly, there were genuine worries that he had conveniently and, again for selfish reasons, sought to embrace Zanu-PF's necessary but wrongly, chaotically and corruptly implemented land reform - believing that the same madness could and should be exported to South Africa.

"The majority of comrades in the national executive committee (of the ANC) abhorred this unhealthy piranha relationship, as well as the destructive tendencies he sought to import here from Harare," the source said.

Another source close to Zuma said it was clear that Malema had "borrowed a leaf out of the Zanu-PF politics manual".

"Malema's departure is good riddance to bad rubbish. It is very clear that this unguided missile had borrowed a leaf out of the Zanu-PF politics manual, which is a no, no in the ANC.

"While the ANC and Zanu-PF shared many aspects in the past, the two organisations are like chalk and cheese today.

"Malema's despicable behaviour with regards to Zimbabwe did not just threaten to put spanners in the works of President Zuma's mediation efforts in Harare, it also had the potential of creating chaos in South Africa itself.

"He was openly campaigning for Zanu-PF to the detriment of peace, stability and progress in both Zimbabwe and South Africa.

"Now that he is gone, Zanu-PF will have to come up with something new to delay progress in our countries," he said.

Questions about Zanu-PF's questionable relationship with the controversial ANC youth league leader were first openly raised two months ago when ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe visited Zimbabwe, amid allegations that Mugabe's party was funding and training Malema.

Mantashe forthrightly and undiplomatically accused Zanu-PF's leadership of "influencing" Malema, who has been campaigning in recent months for Zimbabwe-style land reforms and the nationalisation of mines in South Africa.

During his visit here, Mantashe met separately with vice president John Nkomo, Zanu-PF's national chairman Simon Khaya Moyo, vice president Joice Mujuru and Mutasa.

Mutasa revealed in interviews with state media later that Mantashe had claimed that Zanu-PF was "feeding" Malema's radical campaign. Mutasa said the ANC secretary-general had also claimed that Zanu-PF youths had massed outside the South African embassy in Harare to demonstrate against the ANC's decision to charge Malema.

Zanu-PF strongly denied that it was influencing Malema, with Mutasa saying: "We told them that we are not influencing him. If he speaks like Zanu-PF, that is the way he likes to speak, we cannot change him. If he thinks like us that is up to him".

However, SW Radio Africa reported at the time that it was "widely known" that Zanu-PF was funding Malema, apparently because the former ruling party was not happy with Zuma and, ostensibly, his mediation efforts in Zimbabwe.

Journalist Geoff Hill told the radio station that there was no evidence to support the claims that Zanu-PF was directly funding Malema, adding that it was likely that the allegations were linked to Malema's alleged close relationship with empowerment minister Saviour Kasukuwere.

"Malema has developed a close link with Kasukuwere who is responsible for the Green Bombers. My information is that when Malema was in Zimbabwe earlier this year, Kasukuwere gave him training kits and DVDs and other material related to the Green Bombers.

"This was apparently aimed at setting up a radical and dangerous, not armed, but violent wing of the ANC Youth League," Hill said.