ANCYL to nominate Ace Magashule for president, says Malema

Leader of the EFF Julius Malema has suggested the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) will move to elect Free State Premier Ace Magashule to succeed Jacob Zuma during the December elective conference.

The EFF leader alleges this is because the controversial Gupta family is not happy with the suggestion that Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma should replace the president.

“The youth league will be nominating Ace for president because Duduzane told the Father that the Guptas are not happy with the stepmother,” said Malema on Twitter.

He was joking about the fact that one of Zuma’s sons, Duduzane, is a close business partner of the Guptas, and Dlamini-Zuma was his stepmother before she and Zuma divorced.

This is not the first time Malema has made predictions on what will transpire at the much-anticipated conference. Two weeks ago, the EFF leader cautioned on a possibility of a third term. Although he did not mention Zuma by name, it was clear that he was referring to the president.

Last week, ANCYL president Collen Maine said the choice of candidate the youth league would endorse as the next president of the liberation movement would send “shockwaves” throughout the ANC. Contrary to what most people thought would be the case, Maine said that the league would not back either one of the frontrunners, Cyril Ramaphosa and Dlamini-Zuma.

In an interview with news agency Reuters, Maine on Tuesday said the ANC needed a bold leader to launch a “second revolution”, redistributing wealth to the country’s black majority.

“These candidates who have been mentioned are part of the system. They have been part of the system we want to change. We need bold leadership. We need a second revolution that will cause ruptures in the economy,” Maine said.

There was a lot of speculation at the time, particularly on social media, that the league may have been referring to Magashule.

Magashule has been the ANC’s Free State chairperson for the past 25 years (since 1992) and is understood to be a firm Zuma supporter. He was implicated in deals favouring the Gupta family in the province, particularly in the case of a R570 million dairy project that the Mail & Guardian reported was “riddled with irregularities”, reportedly according to investigators for National Treasury.

The reports the M&G claimed it had seen “suggested the deal with Estina – a company without agricultural experience and led by a computer sales manager – flouted treasury rules and was designed to milk provincial government coffers” and “flagged allegations of the Gupta family’s proximity to the project and several of the role players”.