Kgalema Motlanthe - Relationship With The ANCYL

Relationship With The ANCYL

Following Zuma’s election in 2009, the ANCYL and Julius Malema drifted apart. Zuma owed much to Malema and the ANCYL for his success in being elected as the head of the ANC in Polokwane. A one stage Malema declared that he was prepared “to kill for Zuma.” However, by 2008, Motlanthe warned that Malema and ANCYL leaders were “to be reigned when they behaved unacceptably.” Motlanthe himself had been at the receiving end of the ANCYL and Malema criticisms. Tension between Zuma and Malema was exacerbated following the public sector strike in 2010. Following Malema and the ANCYL’s attack on the Botswana government, he (and other leaders) were expelled from the ANC. Motlanthe felt that Malema ought not to have been expelled but rather the ANC should have engaged with the errant ANCYL members. Malema was expelled from the organisation in 2011.