ANC Veteran Mathews Phosa Says Removing Julius Malema Was a Mistake — What Happens Now?

Mathews Phosa dropped a political grenade on Thursday when the ANC veteran told a gathering of party faithful that expelling Julius Malema from the movement twelve years ago was fundamentally the wrong call — words no senior figure inside Luthuli House has dared utter so plainly since the 2012 disciplinary ruling shattered South African politics forever.

Phosa, a former ANC treasurer-general and ex-Premier of Mpumalanga, allegedly made the admission during a closed engagement before footage circulated on social media overnight, forcing the remark into the national conversation. His exact phrasing — “It was the wrong decision to remove Julius Malema from the ANC” — carries enormous weight precisely because Phosa sat close to the levers of power during the period when that fateful disciplinary machinery churned against the then-Youth League firebrand.

ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Mories declined an immediate comment, while Economic Freedom Fighters deputy president Floyd Shivambu confirmed via X that the clip had reached EFF leadership, noting the organisation would respond through proper channels at an appropriate moment. Law enforcement sources monitoring political gatherings saw no disturbance at the venue.

Malema faced his first formal suspension back in 2011 after publicly threatening to campaign for regime change in Botswana — defying direct orders from then-President Jacob Zuma. A disciplinary committee subsequently expelled him from ANC membership in April 2012, a verdict the Appeals Tribunal upheld later that same year. Within months, Malema launched the EFF, which has since grown into Parliament’s third-largest force, fundamentally reshaping opposition dynamics across every province.

Witnesses at Thursday’s engagement described Phosa gripping both sides of the podium as he delivered the remark, his voice steady but his jaw visibly tight — the body language of a man choosing accountability over comfort in front of an audience that fell completely silent the instant those particular syllables left his mouth.

No ANC structure has yet moved to repudiate or endorse Phosa’s view, leaving the statement suspended in an uncomfortable vacuum that neither side of the political divide can afford to ignore for long. South Africans watching from township streets to suburban lounge rooms are now asking the same uncomfortable question: if the expulsion truly destroyed something irreplaceable, who among the current leadership carries responsibility for rebuilding it?

https://x.com/i/status/2119449540252020854

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