ANCYL leader Julius Malema blames the current brouhaha about his call for the nationalisation of mines on "individuals within the ANC who think they can interpret ANC policy better than others".

ANCYL leader Julius Malema blames the current brouhaha about his call for the nationalisation of mines on "individuals within the ANC who think they can interpret ANC policy better than others".

Malema says his call for the nationalisation of mines is in line with ANC policy, which is based on the Freedom Charter.

"There is no dispute on this matter because it is ANC policy to implement the Freedom Charter, which calls for the nationalisation of the mines."

The ANC's initial response to Malema's call was that there were no plans to nationalise the mines. On Monday, however, ANC general secretary Gwede Mantashe said the mineral rights were already state-owned. The party went further to say that the issue of nationalisation should be debated.

Yesterday Malema shot this explanation down, saying the state "has nationalised mineral rights but is now giving them to the private sector to exploit".

"We want a pronouncement now that says the state will be a major shareholder in all the mines - where it will control the operations and also direct local economic development in areas where these mines operate."