ANCYL trio say sorry to Zuma
|Published
Cape Town 230212 The arrest of a unruley person at the African National Congress Centenary Memorial Lecture on the second ANC President Sefako Mapogo Makgatho deliveried by the ANC President Comrade Jacob Zuma . The event was held at the Hood Hope Centre Western Cape. Picture : neil baynes Reporter : Xholani Cape Town 230212 The arrest of a unruley person at the African National Congress Centenary Memorial Lecture on the second ANC President Sefako Mapogo Makgatho deliveried by the ANC President Comrade Jacob Zuma . The event was held at the Hood Hope Centre Western Cape. Picture : neil baynes Reporter : Xholani
Three ANC Youth League members have publicly apologised for embarrassing ANC president Jacob Zuma by disrupting his centenary lecture at the Good Hope Centre in January.
In song they demanded to know from Zuma: Uphi uJuju? (Where is Juju? – the then league president Julius Malema, suspended for insulting Zuma, among other charges). Scuffles broke out and chairs were thrown, injuring an SABC camera operator.
The league in the Dullah Omar region told a media conference on Wednesday it welcomed the apologies of the trio, Sibusiso Nkomiyahlaba, Menzi Manyonga and Loyiso Nkohla. In a plea bargain last month, the ANC suspended the trio’s membership along with that of Zuko Ngejane for a number of years, a sentence itself suspended in return for admitting guilt.
After he entered a plea bargain by admitting guilt, Nkomiyahlaba’s membership was suspended for five years – a penalty suspended for five years on condition he was not found guilty again of the same misconduct. Nkohla’s, Manyonga’s and Ngejane’s membership was suspended for three years, a penalty suspended for three years on the same condition applying to Nkomiyahlaba.
They were also ordered to apologise publicly to Zuma, and within six months to submit to political education and community service.
The ANCYL said on Wednesday it was important for the three to be at the media conference to publicly apologise to the leadership of the ANC and “to commit themselves to rebuilding a united and disciplined ANC”.
The trio said they had written to Zuma and the provincial leadership apologising for the embarrassment they had caused him and for tarnishing the organisation’s image. Regional spokeswoman Nyameka Mguzulo said the three would, as part of their community work sentence, play an important role during the forthcoming Mandela Day celebrations when the league would be delivering shoes to pupils.
“We are, however, disappointed in the selective handling of disciplinary processes in the ANC. Not so long ago disgruntled members marched into the provincial office of the ANC and vandalised its property,” said Mguzulo.
“We were promised that these comrades would be brought to book, but to this day those comrades were never charged nor sentenced.”
The league said it was also awaiting the ANC provincial disciplinary committee’s decision to press charges against members of the provincial executive committee “who committed fraud in our provincial conferences there-by sowing divisions in the ANCYL instead of uniting it”.
ANC provincial spokesman Cobus Grobler referred enquiries to secretary Songezo Mjongile, who said the general council had accepted that charges would not be pressed.
The youth league says it will be marching to the Provincial Legislature and the Cape Chamber of Commerce on July 27 to hand over a memorandum of grievances to Premier Helen Zille, including:
l The scrapping of the youth wage subsidy in favour of a job seekers’ grant.
l The proposed closure of 27 schools.
l A speedy introduction of the Youth Development Policy.
l The Integrated Rapid Transit project which “costs (the public purse) millions of rands and is unsustainable”.
kwanele.butana@inl.co.za
Cape Times