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Lamola wants to 'skip the leadership queue' but must wait his turn: Malema

Mawande AmaShabalala Political journalist
EFF leader Julius Malema addresses the media at the party head office Johannesburg on Tuesday.
EFF leader Julius Malema addresses the media at the party head office Johannesburg on Tuesday.
Image: Alon Skuy

EFF leader Julius Malema believes ANC national executive committee member Ronald Lamola is not ready to be party deputy president.

Malema was reacting to Lamola’s apparent interest in contesting for the position of ANC deputy president at the party’s national elective conference in December. Lamola recently called for “new blood” to swell the leadership ranks of the ANC.

According to Malema, Lamola wants to skip the queue instead of allowing the “generation” before him to contest for ANC top positions.

Malema, a former leader of the ANCYL, said there was an unwritten rule within ANC ranks to allow the generation before you to go for top positions and pave the way for the next generation.

In Lamola's case, he went on, he should allow the generations of leaders such as Malusi Gigaba and Fikile Mbalula to lead — and his generation would be the next in line.

Justice and correctional services minister Ronald Lamola.
Justice and correctional services minister Ronald Lamola.
Image: Freddy Mavunda

Malema said Lamola was groomed politically by current ANC second-in-command David Mabuza, who he now wants to oppose.

Malema believes such a move would be driven by factional interests and “uncontrollable desire for power” because Lamola's rise to the national arena through the ANCYL was sponsored by Mabuza.

“Now he wants to contest DD [Mabuza], his political mentor, the man who made him what he is today,” said Malema. “Who is he? He will not be a threat. He is a young man who suffers from uncontrollable ambition for power.

“Why would he want to be a deputy president ahead of those who came before him in the ANCYL. There is a generation of Malusi Gigaba, Lulu Johnson and Fikile Mbalula.”

Malema believes if Lamola supported his seniors, the ground would be fertile for Lamola and his cohort to rise to the top of ANC leadership ranks with ease, with the blessings of those who came before them.

“But in the ANC, there is no longer discipline, there is no longer even generational rubric, there is no longer a centre, there is no leadership. The membership is actually leadership, people who are supposed to be members are leaders themselves.”

TimesLIVE


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