S Africa`s ruling party opens proceedings against youth leader

South Africa`s ruling party said on Tuesday the leader of its youth wing Julius Malema will face disciplinary proceedings over recent remarks that have stoked racial tensions.

Johannesburg: South Africa`s ruling party
said on Tuesday the leader of its youth wing Julius Malema will
face disciplinary proceedings over recent remarks that have
stoked racial tensions.

"There has been a notice" informing Malema of the
proceedings, said Thandi Modise, deputy secretary general of
the African National Congress (ANC).
"There have been no formal charges given because the
disciplinary committee... is still in motion," she told a
press conference.

"ANC officials will discuss issues of discipline
internally and will not engage on internal matters with the
media," she said.

"We have nothing to hide. We seek the space to do our
business without feeling pressurised," she added, saying the
results of the proceedings would be made public.

ANC rules allow a range of disciplinary actions, with
expulsion from the party the most extreme penalty.

"When we are finished, we will come back to the media,"
Modise said.

"The youth league has said to the (ANC leadership) last
night that they have remorse" over Malema`s attack on the BBC
reporter, she said.
Malema, 29, a polemical figure who has said he would go
so far as to kill for ANC leader Jacob Zuma, earlier this
month called a BBC journalist a "bastard" and a "bloody agent"
after the reporter interrupted him at a briefing
on his recent trip to Zimbabwe.

Malema is also at the centre of a storm over a song,
"Shoot the boer" ("farmer" in Afrikaans), which opposition
parties say incites violence against whites.

Right-wingers have linked the song to the killing this
month of white supremacist Eugene Terre`Blanche, which
reignited race tensions 16 years after the end of apartheid.

The song has been banned as hate speech in two court
rulings, and Zuma said these decisions should be accepted.

Zuma, who has in the past shielded Malema from public
outrage at his fiery rhetoric, said on April 10 that the youth
league leader`s conduct and statements were "totally alien to
the culture of the ANC".

PTI

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