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*On-off Malema 'hearing' raises questions about Zuma's intent* *Karima Brown, Business Day, Johannesburg, 21 April 2010*THE African National Congress (ANC) said yesterday it was considering dropping charges against the fiery president of its youth league, Julius Malema, raising questions about whether the party disciplinary process already under way involving him is merely a facade to allow President Jacob Zuma to save face.
The questions emerged out of the murk yesterday as party officials, pundits and journalists scrambled to decipher, explain or disguise the truth about what happened late on Monday afternoon when the ANC's most senior officials met the national working committee of the youth league.
Yesterday the ANC insisted that its disciplinary processes would remain an internal matter. But this has not stopped speculation about what Malema's fate would be and whether he had bested Zuma during Monday's meeting, as has been reported.
Much was made of the fact that the disciplinary action is going ahead and that the ANC's top six officials could not initiate the dropping of charges.
Also it emerged that May 3 has been set as the date when Malema would appear before the party's national disciplinary committee, to be chaired by Deputy Science and Technology Minister Derek Hanekom .
However, the status of the charges against Malema remains unclear.ANC deputy secretary-general Thandi Modise told a media briefing yesterday that charges had not yet been formulated against Malema. She said the "matter was on the table" and it was being considered by the ANC. The disciplinary committee would investigate and decide whether charges would be brought against Malema, and, if so, what charges.
On Monday the youth league asked for disciplinary action against Malema to be dropped. Malema was publicly rebuked by Zuma after he visited Zimbabwe, embraced President Robert Mugabe and slated the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, saying that the ANC Youth League preferred Zanu (PF).
Youth league secretary-general Vuyiswa Tulelo said at yesterday's briefing that Malema had "apologised" for his behaviour and had clarified his comments on Zimbabwe to the ANC leadership.
She insisted that the league had to respond as a collective. What Malema said was in his capacity as its president, and that was why the league had to "say we are sorry for our behaviour".
Modise and Tulelo insisted that Malema had apologised for his behaviour towards a BBC journalist whom he ejected from a press conference and called a "bastard" and "bloody agent".
"So the ANC Youth League has apologised for that thing that has ... unsettled South African society," Tulelo said, and the league took "collective responsibility".
Asked whether Malema would accept the outcome of the ANC's disciplinary process, Tulelo said: "Julius is a member of the ANC Youth League. When the ANC engages with him as a member of the ANC Youth League, as himself, in the disciplinary processes, he has made it abundantly clear that he will succumb to the discipline of the ANC."
She acknowledged that the ANC had reminded the league that it had to behave in a manner befitting the "values" of the ANC. Tulelo attributed controversial comments to the youth sometimes having difficulty with English and therefore choosing inappropriate words, saying that "when you say things that agitate us, the English finishes and we look for the easiest thing to say".
But she said the ANC had reminded them to "carry ourselves in a manner that will reinforce the values and the principles of the organisation that we represent".
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