Zuma replaced democracy with dictatorship – S.African youth leader

[MrVan]

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) – Embattled South African youth leader Julius Malema has accused President Jacob Zuma of "dictatorship", as jockeying intensifies ahead of the key ANC elective conference, local media said Saturday.

Malema is fighting his expulsion from the African National Congress, launching a series of appeals against a disciplinary panel that booted him out of the party for fomenting divisions within its ranks.

The appeals process could ultimately land before the ANC's most important conference in December, where Zuma will seek a second term as party boss. Given the ANC's enormous support among voters, that will virtually guarantee him a second term as South Africa's president.

"We have seen the youth of the ANC being traumatised... being expelled from their own home," Malema said in a speech late Friday at the University of the Watwatersrand, according to The Star newspaper.

"It is under President Zuma we have seen a critical voice being suppressed. We have seen under President Zuma democracy being replaced with dictatorship. We have seen an intolerance... people who become impatient with the youth," he said.

"Maybe our ideas serve as a threat to the current leadership," he added.

Malema appeared alongside the ANC Treasurer Mathews Phosa. Last Sunday, Malema was joined by South Africa's Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe at a public rally.

Motlanthe has been rumoured as a possible rival to Zuma's bid to remain ANC chief.

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