Juju hearing deferred to Thursday

THE mitigation hearing for embattled ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema and two other league members will resume on Thursday.

The hearing, where the trio are pleading for leniency in their sanctions after the party's national disciplinary committee of appeals (NDCA) upheld the national disciplinary committee's guilty verdict, dragged on until late yesterday.

African National Congress spokesman Keith Khoza said: "It is expected that they will continue with mitigation and arguments for aggravating circumstances.

"No one has indicated on changes on the time frame. The parties had agreed on two hours per person and two hours for the ANC for arguments."

He would not say who - between Malema, his spokesman Floyd Shivambu and the league's secretary-general Sindiso Magaqa - had finished with mitigation.

Malema, Shivambu and Magaqa were found guilty in November last year of bringing the ANC into disrepute and of sowing division within the party.

Earlier in the day, ANC national disciplinary committee chairman Derek Hanekom said the ruling party would also be allowed to argue its case during the hearing.

"The sitting will also receive arguments for aggravating circumstances from the ANC as per the decision of the NDCA ... the ANC's aggravating argument will also be allocated two hours in total," he said in a statement.

This was after the three youth league leaders made comments about regime change in Botswana, undermined Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba's authority, insulted a journalist and compared President Jacob Zuma unfavourably to his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki.