SESHEGO, the Limpopo hometown of former ANC Youth League president Julius Malema, was relatively quiet yesterday following the announcement of his expulsion from the ruling party.

Malema was expelled from the ANC on Tuesday night after being found guilty of sowing divisions and bringing the party into disrepute.

In the past - from the time he was charged in August until the ANC's national disciplinary committee of appeals (NDCA) pronounced his expulsion in February - the township used to spring into wild celebration, with Malema's detractors lining the streets in cars and hooting and partying late into the night.

But this time around the township was as quiet as if somebody had died. Even the home of his grandmother, Sarah, which is normally the centre of activity, was very quiet.

Malema's other home in Flora Park, a suburb of Polokwane, was deserted.

Boy Mamabolo, who led a group that celebrated near Malema's Seshego home on the day the ANC announced its decision to expel him pending his plea in mitigation, was "happy that Malema has finally been expelled".

"We hope the decision will be a lesson to other leaders who behave like Malema that no one is above the organisation," Mamabolo said.

He said they would not want one of those who were in the same leadership group with Malema taking over from the deposed leader.

"All of them have been cooked in the same pot with Malema," Mamabolo said in reference to the league's deputy president Ronald Lamola and treasurer general Pule Mabe.

Meanwhile, newly elected ANCYL chairman in Limpopo, Rudzani Ludere, was yesterday heard on an SABC radio saying Malema would remain their president until his term ended in 2014.

ANC provincial spokesman Makonde Mathivha said they would not go against the decision of the NDCA but would have preferred a political solution to the impasse.