The ANC Youth League supports the party’s Mpumalanga chairman David Mabuza’s position that EFF leader Julius Malema should be brought back to the governing party.

ANCYL leader Collen Maine told Sowetan that people who were expelled from the ANC, including Malema, must come back.

“The ANC is a home for everybody. We need each other in the ANC. The ANC is a big elephant, but if many people leave, the elephant will collapse. We must do everything in our power to prevent the elephant from collapsing,” Maine said.

“If bringing [back] people who were expelled will assist the ANC, let us bring them back.”

This comes after Mabuza told the ANCYL provincial general council in Mbombela at the weekend that the ANC was weaker without Malema.

Mabuza, a close ally of President Jacob Zuma, also said he was considering bringing Malema back into the ANC.

But the EFF will have none of this. EFF spokesman Mbuyiseni Ndlozi described the remarks by Mabuza as a “selfish attempt to raise his profile and make news”.

“Mabuza, who represents nothing ideologically, has taken a decision to use the name of the CIC [commander-in-chief] in his campaign towards the ANC conference,” Ndlozi said yesterday.

“We know for sure that he does not mean any of the things he is saying, just like those in the ANC who are talking about land. They are all claiming that they believe in land expropriation without compensation, but we are not fooled because they only use this to gain public attention for their aims to take over the ANC.”

Mabuza is reported to have ambitions to become the ANC deputy president when the party holds its national elective conference in December.

Ndlozi said Malema would never be recruited into any political formation by a “kleptocrat” like Mabuza.

“DD Mabuza represents everything that is wrong with the ruling party,” Ndlozi said.

Malema was ANCYL leader before he was expelled from the ANC in 2012. Sowetan