On Saturday, after an African National Congress appeals
panel upheld his suspension for bringing Africa’s oldest
liberation movement into disrepute, the banishment of the
youthful rebel from party ranks seemed complete.

The panel nevertheless decided to allow Malema and fellow
suspended ANC Youth League colleagues an additional hearing to
argue for a lighter penalty than his five-year suspension.

A speedier return to the party may not salvage his ANC
career, but some believe he could remain a player in South
Africa’s political scene, ahead of a key ANC leadership
conference due at the end of this year.

“Julius Malema will be back. He has political skills and
instincts second to none. He has a long career ahead of him. It
might feel like a big setback now, but he will be back,” said
Nic Borain, an independent political analyst.

Malema, 30, had stamped his presence on South Africa’s
political life with his mocking criticism of President Jacob
Zuma and his scathing reminders that the masses have yet to feel
the full economic benefits of the end of apartheid 18 years ago.

Adding to his notoriety, his repeated calls to nationalise
South Africa’s giant gold and platinum mines rattled investors
and he stirred racial tensions by calling for a seizure of
white-owned farm lands.

In a relatively short time, he became one of the country’s
most influential and controversial politicians, whose support
could boost candidates in the fractious party. He was seen as a
potential kingmaker.

Branded a demagogue, a reckless populist and even a future
leader of Africa’s biggest economy. But to many in South Africa,
he was simply known by his nickname “Juju”.

Malema’s militant speeches resonated with South Africa’s
unemployed black youths, many facing a bleak future.

Supporters praised him for “speaking truth” when he
repeatedly flayed Zuma’s government for failing to deliver on
the ANC’s promise to give “a better life for all” when it took
power in 1994 after decades of white-minority rule.

SON OF A MAID

Born into poverty as the son of a domestic worker employed
by an Indian family in Limpopo, north of Johannesburg, Malema
became politically active from an early age.

He rose through the ranks to become president in 2008 of the
ANC Youth League, founded decades before by political giants
including Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu.

Malema and a group of other power brokers ousted then
President Thabo Mbkei in late 2007 from his leadership of the
party and replaced him with Zuma, who became the country’s
president a little over a year later.

Malema declared at the time he was ready to kill for Zuma.

The two later fell out, and Zuma’s foes wooed Malema whose
supporters were young blacks, half of whom are jobless. A study
by the South African Institute of Race Relations has said about
half of people now aged 25-34 would never find work.

Overall unemployment in South Africa is officially about 25
percent. Millions still live in squalid shack settlements
clustered around big cities.

Despite his age, Malema proved himself a shrewd political
operator, using poverty and the plight of the youth to build a
powerbase that was often at odds with the official party line.

“With carefree abandon he knowingly gave the finger to the
project of non-racialism, rubbished the notion of a Rainbow
Nation and challenged the goals of the transition,” journalist
Fiona Forde wrote in a recent book on Malema.

“He was a political entrepreneur operating in an environment
of ample opportunity.”

SUSHI AND CHAMPAGNE

A flamboyant lifestyle, including expensive watches and
champagne parties, further drew poor youths to him.

The newspaper City Press, in an article last year vetted by
a judge before publication, said Malema had a slush fund for
bribes used to finance his lavish living. He has denied any
wrongdoing, and faces a criminal probe into his finances.

But it was his outspoken comments and criticism of ANC
leaders, including Zuma, that landed him in the hottest water.

Even with a suspension hanging over him since late last
year, an apparently unrepentant Malema had continued to attack
Zuma – portraying him as “the shower man” in a mocking reference
to widely criticised statement by the president that he had
showered after having sex with an HIV-infected woman.

Malema had been defending his actions in front of a party
disciplinary panel since late August but failed to convince
party officials of his innocence.

The ANC disciplinary panel said in its November suspension
decision that Malema had fostered divisions in the ANC and that
he had brought the party into disrepute for calling for the
overthrow of the elected government of neighbouring Botswana.

Malema’s appeal hearings were risky for both Zuma – who
hopes to win a second term as ANC leader in December – and
Malema, who had come out in support of Deputy President Kgalema
Motlanthe for the country’s top job.

But while thousands of enthusiastic supporters
turned out to back the youthful rebel late last year, only a few
dozen were outside ANC headquarters for the appeals hearing on
Saturday.

“Who rules the world? Juju! Juju!,” they chanted.

The low turnout suggested his political crown within the ANC
may have slipped – for the moment at least.

(Additional reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Louise
Ireland)

Jailed for a decade on Robben Island Prison under apartheid, and then found not guilty on rape charges and escaping a corruption prosecution in post-apartheid South Africa, Zuma has had his fair share of days in court.

Now his critics accuse South Africa’s fourth post-apartheid president of encroaching on the independence of the judiciary and appointing supporters to key posts as he fights to extend his presidency for another five years.

“We cannot allow the ‘Zumafication’ of South Africa’s constitutionally independent justice system,” opposition Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said this month.

Zuma’s appointment of a relatively inexperienced judge as chief justice, the designation of his former trial adviser as the top corruption investigator and plans by the ruling ANC to review judgments of the Constitutional Court – South Africa’s highest – reinforces a perception that the independent judiciary is under threat, analysts say.

The justice system has become a key battleground as the African National Congress is embroiled in serious infighting ahead of a crucial party conference to elect a new leader, and by implication South Africa’s next president, a year from now.

“The judiciary is not so much in crisis as it is embattled,” said Anne Fruhauf, Africa analyst at Eurasia group.

“BRUISING BATTLES”

The independence of the judiciary is a cornerstone of South Africa’s constitution and while courts have proven their autonomy in recent rulings, such as the Supreme Court of Appeals overturning Zuma’s appointment of Menzi Simelane as head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), there are fears it is now coming under attack.

“The judiciary has been involved in some bruising battles, both internal and external, over the past few years which has raised concerns over the relationship between the judiciary, the executive and the ruling party. There appear to be growing tensions over the balance of power between the executive and the judiciary,” said Mike Davies, analyst at risk consultancy Maplecroft.

Zuma’s appointment of supporters in key judicial roles is a cause for concern.

“It is true that Zuma seems to be surrounding himself with acolytes. This is quite apparent when you look at a string of personnel appointments and departures at the NPA (and) the intelligence services,” Eurasia Group’s Fruhauf said.

Zuma’s appointment of former judge Willem Heath to head the Special Investigating Unit, one of the main anti-corruption agencies, was severely criticised by opposition parties.

Heath advised Zuma during a prolonged legal battle which culminated in graft charges against him being dropped in 2009 – clearing the way for him to become president.

Critics pointed to comments made by Heath in a newspaper interview after his appointment, in which he said former President Thabo Mbeki was behind the rape and corruption charges laid against Zuma.

This risked reviving memories of the bitter and damaging faction-fighting within the ANC that accompanied Mbeki’s ousting by his own party and his replacement by Zuma as party leader in December 2007.

Zuma and the presidency distanced themselves from the comments by Heath, which are also the subject of a Justice Ministry inquiry.

But the opposition DA said Heath’s comments showed he had aligned himself politically with Zuma.

“This raises serious questions as to whether he will be able to objectively and impartially conduct investigations into corruption at all levels of government,” DA leader Zille said.

Corruption remains a blight in South Africa. Zuma fired two cabinet ministers and suspended the country’s police chief in October to try to dispel criticism that he was soft on graft.

Still, corruption watchdog Transparency International ranked South Africa 64 out of 183 countries in its latest corruption perceptions index, which meant the country slipped 10 places from 2010.

ALLIANCE BREAKUP?

Another battle that will most likely end up in court is one over a controversial secrecy bill, which the opposition, media and Zuma’s ally the powerful COSATU trade union federation said they will fight, arguing it could allow corruption to remain unchecked.

The Protection of Information Bill passed by parliament last month allows any government agency to apply for classification of information that is “valuable” to the state and criminalises the possession and distribution of state secrets.

The secrecy bill has united opposition parties, but COSATU’s outspoken criticism and lobbying against the bill may be the first concrete sign that the decades-old alliance between the ANC, labour and the South African Communist Party (SACP) may be on the rocks.

The ANC has long relied on its trade union ally to generate votes but fierce criticism by the SACP of COSATU over its stance on the bill showed the delicate state of the alliance.

“What all this points to is the steady crumbling of the ruling alliance, which is in a state of irretrievable conflict and confusion,” independent political analyst Allister Sparks wrote in Business Day newspaper.

(Editing by Pascal Fletcher)

Which is exactly why the family’s exit from the diamond industry is all the more surprising. Africa’s second-richest family, after Nigerian food and cement tycoon Aliko Dangote, sold their 40 percent stake in De Beers to Anglo American this month for $5.1 billion.

The decision means the dynasty involved in South Africa’s diamond industry for a century, is finally getting out of the business.

“It was an extraordinarily emotional and difficult thing for us. I think also difficult because the family have been in diamonds since my grandfather came to South Africa in 1902,” current De Beers chairman Nicky Oppenheimer told Reuters.

But stung by the global financial crisis and wrestling with family discord over the direction their investments should take, the Oppenheimers have sold out to preserve their fortune.

The family insist they still take decisions as one and say they plan to invest “a large part” of the proceeds in Africa. One banker familiar with the matter said the family was already in talks to start another joint-venture private equity fund, similar to the $300 million fund set up with Singapore’s Temasek Holdings in August.

The odds are good that a big chunk of the $5.1 billion will be reinvested in Africa. Over the past four years the family’s investment arm E. Oppenheimer & Son has begun concentrating more on African investments outside the diamond industry — healthcare, agriculture, media, retail — at the instigation of heir-to-be Jonathan Oppenheimer. The family will maintain a stake of just under two percent in Anglo American as well as other investments such as a private equity business investing in mid-sized South African companies.

WEALTH UNDER PRESSURE Headed by Nicky Oppenheimer, the clan is South Africa’s equivalent of the Rockefellers. The family mansion in Johannesburg — the gardens are open to the public and require the services of 45 gardeners — has housed generation after generation since 1922.

Critics say the Oppenheimers benefited under apartheid but Harry Oppenheimer, who was De Beers’ chairman for 27 years, was hated by many in the white political elite and ordinary Afrikaners, not least because he supported the creation of black trade unions, provided housing for black employees and encouraged education.

When former British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan made his “Winds of Change” speech in South Africa’s whites-only parliament in 1960, drawing the wrath of the apartheid government, he was a guest at the Oppenheimer home.

The family had long rebuffed informal approaches from Anglo for its share of De Beers. But when Chairman John Parker tried again in September, he found Nicky Oppenheimer more receptive.

The shift is a reflection of several pressures on the family, not least turbulence in financial markets and recession clouds on the horizon. That worried some in the family — particularly Nicky’s sister Mary Slack, according to mining industry sources — who had already seen the Oppenheimers’ net worth tumble during the 2008 crisis.

The family had to pump millions into De Beers, which was forced to tap shareholders as diamond prices crashed. “They had to put $400 million in cash into De Beers, which they didn’t have. And they had to borrow that money against their stake in Anglo American,” said one source familiar with the family.

The family was in a bind. The stake in De Beers lost value and the family holdings outside De Beers were tied up largely in private equity, where exiting with a profit was years away.

This sparked some family members, led by Slack — who has equal voting rights in the family — to question the Oppenheimers’ continued involvement in De Beers.

“She would have been observing this (financial crisis) and seeing their wealth really decimated. She was very uncomfortable with where everything was going,” said the source.

Peter Major, mining analyst at Cadiz Corporate Solutions in Cape Town, said he believes Slack had considerable sway over the decision to exit De Beers.

“Mary’s view must have been the deciding factor in selling De Beers to Anglos. Without a doubt. It would then have been quite easy for Nicky to make the decision once he saw how Mary weighed in.”

Though diamonds have been among the best performing commodities this year, sales have been hit by the global slowdown and fears over the euro zone’s debt crisis. There is no single marketplace for diamonds and pricing complex and opaque.

De Beers told investors in July that rough diamond prices increased by around 35 percent in the first six months of the year. The company has not disclosed exact price performance since then, but has said prices have plateaued in recent months.

De Beers sells the bulk of its gems on what are essentially long-term contracts, meaning it tends to feel market volatility less.

But other gem producers have seen steeper drops – small cap miner Firestone Diamonds said in mid-September that prices had fallen 15-20 percent from the start of August as demand softened.

For De Beers, having Anglo American as a major shareholder in the current global financial climate would be preferable, one source close to the group said.

“While one will miss the Oppenheimer involvement, there is a strengthening of shareholders. Anglo has been an amazing shareholder in the recession,” that source said.

De Beers has been battling a pile of debt for much of the past decade. Net interest bearing debt was $3.2 billion at the end of 2009 and $1.76 billion at the end of 2010 compared to 2000 when it had a net cash position of $1.35 billion.

WHO TAKES OVER?

One of the most intriguing factors behind the decision to sell is the issue of succession planning — tough for any family business and even more so for the Oppenheimer’s multi-billion pound empire.

Nicky Oppenheimer’s heir-elect is his 42-year-old only son Jonathan, educated at Christ Church, Oxford — like his father and grandfather — and a 20-year veteran of several De Beers departments.

“Jonathan will certainly lead this process,” Oppenheimer senior said. “I am after all 66, while I am active and not retired, he is the man that is going to do the business.”

But Nicky’s choice, industry sources say, has not gone unchallenged, particularly after Anglo American turned Jonathan down for a board position after his father’s departure and closed what is usually the route to the De Beers chairmanship.

Anglo has an effective veto over the chairman’s position.

Jonathan, his critics say, is less well-liked than his father, while others question his ability to lead the firm.

One diamond industry source described Nicky Oppenheimer as “totally blind” to his son’s shortcomings and said others in the family were unlikely to let him take the reins.

Nicky Oppenheimer declined to give details of the family discussions but said the sale was a decision taken unanimously and the family would continue to manage its wealth actively.

“No doubt everybody is around speculating about what went on or didn’t go on. We as a family act together and Mary is extremely supportive of the process of finding new business to do,” Oppenheimer said in an interview.

“None of us are the sort of people who think you should bury your talents in the ground.”

Cadiz’s Major said Jonathan is unlikely to feel as attached to the diamond industry as his forebears.

“Why should he have the same passion and vision and desire that they did? Let alone the connections and gravitas. Are Steve Job’s and Bill Gates’ kids dying to take over the reins of Apple and Microsoft? Hell no.”

But the issue will be a key topic for the family to resolve over the coming months, as it waits for the Anglo acquisition to complete and the cash to land in family coffers.

“Clearly we have a bias toward Africa, we are based in South Africa so we will be looking for opportunities here. We are looking for opportunities in Botswana where we have good connections and then elsewhere in Africa,” Oppenheimer said.

A banker close to the family said the Oppenheimers are in talks with an Africa-focused entity to set up another joint venture worth about $300 million.

“It’s not about optics. Africa is growing at 6 percent per annum. It makes good economic sense,” he said.

(Marius Bosch and David Dolan reported from Johannesburg, Clara Ferreira-Marques from London; Editing by Chris Wickham and Simon Robinson)

Which is exactly why the family’s exit from the diamond
industry is all the more surprising. Africa’s second-richest
family, after Nigerian food and cement tycoon Aliko Dangote,
sold their 40 percent stake in De Beers to Anglo
American this month for $5.1 billion.

The decision means the dynasty involved in South Africa’s
diamond industry for a century, is finally getting out of the
business.

“It was an extraordinarily emotional and difficult thing for
us. I think also difficult because the family have been
in diamonds since my grandfather came to South Africa in 1902,”
current De Beers chairman Nicky Oppenheimer told Reuters.

But stung by the global financial crisis and wrestling with
family discord over the direction their investments should take,
the Oppenheimers have sold out to preserve their fortune.

The family insist they still take decisions as one and say
they plan to invest “a large part” of the proceeds in Africa.
One banker familiar with the matter said the family was already
in talks to start another joint-venture private equity fund,
similar to the $300 million fund set up with Singapore’s Temasek
Holdings in August.

The odds are good that a big chunk of the $5.1 billion will
be reinvested in Africa. Over the past four years the family’s
investment arm E. Oppenheimer & Son has begun concentrating more
on African investments outside the diamond industry –
healthcare, agriculture, media, retail — at the instigation of
heir-to-be Jonathan Oppenheimer. The family will maintain a
stake of just under two percent in Anglo American as well as
other investments such as a private equity business investing in
mid-sized South African companies.

WEALTH UNDER PRESSURE
Headed by Nicky Oppenheimer, the clan is South Africa’s
equivalent of the Rockefellers. The family mansion in
Johannesburg — the gardens are open to the public and require
the services of 45 gardeners — has housed generation after
generation since 1922.

Critics say the Oppenheimers benefited under apartheid but
Harry Oppenheimer, who was De Beers’ chairman for 27 years, was
hated by many in the white political elite and ordinary
Afrikaners, not least because he supported the creation of black
trade unions, provided housing for black employees and
encouraged education.

When former British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan made his
“Winds of Change” speech in South Africa’s whites-only
parliament in 1960, drawing the wrath of the apartheid
government, he was a guest at the Oppenheimer home.

The family had long rebuffed informal approaches from
Anglo for its share of De Beers. But when Chairman John
Parker tried again in September, he found Nicky Oppenheimer more
receptive.

The shift is a reflection of several pressures on the
family, not least turbulence in financial markets and
recession clouds on the horizon. That worried some in the family
– particularly Nicky’s sister Mary Slack, according to mining
industry sources — who had already seen the Oppenheimers’ net
worth tumble during the 2008 crisis.

The family had to pump millions into De Beers, which was
forced to tap shareholders as diamond prices crashed. “They had
to put $400 million in cash into De Beers, which they didn’t
have. And they had to borrow that money against their stake in
Anglo American,” said one source familiar with the
family.

The family was in a bind. The stake in De Beers lost value
and the family holdings outside De Beers were tied up largely in
private equity, where exiting with a profit was years
away.

This sparked some family members, led by Slack — who has
equal voting rights in the family — to question
the Oppenheimers’ continued involvement in De
Beers.

“She would have been observing this (financial crisis) and
seeing their wealth really decimated. She was very uncomfortable
with where everything was going,” said the source.

Peter Major, mining analyst at Cadiz Corporate Solutions in
Cape Town, said he believes Slack had considerable sway over the
decision to exit De Beers.

“Mary’s view must have been the deciding factor in selling
De Beers to Anglos. Without a doubt. It would then have been
quite easy for Nicky to make the decision once he saw how Mary
weighed in.”

Though diamonds have been among the best
performing commodities this year, sales have been hit by the
global slowdown and fears over the euro zone’s debt crisis.
There is no single marketplace for diamonds and pricing complex
and opaque.

De Beers told investors in July that rough diamond
prices increased by around 35 percent in the first six months of
the year. The company has not disclosed exact price
performance since then, but has said prices have plateaued in
recent months.

De Beers sells the bulk of its gems on what are essentially
long-term contracts, meaning it tends to feel market volatility
less.

But other gem producers have seen steeper drops – small
cap miner Firestone Diamonds said in mid-September that prices
had fallen 15-20 percent from the start of August as demand
softened.

For De Beers, having Anglo American as a major
shareholder in the current global financial climate would be
preferable, one source close to the group said.

“While one will miss the Oppenheimer involvement, there is
a strengthening of shareholders. Anglo has been an
amazing shareholder in the recession,” that source
said.

De Beers has been battling a pile of debt for much of the
past decade. Net interest bearing debt was $3.2 billion at
the end of 2009 and $1.76 billion at the end of 2010 compared to
2000 when it had a net cash position of $1.35 billion.

WHO TAKES OVER?

One of the most intriguing factors behind the decision
to sell is the issue of succession planning — tough for any
family business and even more so for the
Oppenheimer’s multi-billion pound
empire.

Nicky Oppenheimer’s heir-elect is his 42-year-old only
son Jonathan, educated at Christ Church, Oxford — like his
father and grandfather — and a 20-year veteran of several De
Beers departments.

“Jonathan will certainly lead this process,”
Oppenheimer senior said. “I am after all 66, while I am active
and not retired, he is the man that is going to do the
business.”

But Nicky’s choice, industry sources say, has not gone
unchallenged, particularly after Anglo American turned Jonathan
down for a board position after his father’s departure and
closed what is usually the route to the De Beers
chairmanship.

Anglo has an effective veto over the chairman’s
position.

Jonathan, his critics say, is less well-liked than
his father, while others question his ability to lead the firm.

One diamond industry source described Nicky Oppenheimer as
“totally blind” to his son’s shortcomings and said others in the
family were unlikely to let him take the reins.

Nicky Oppenheimer declined to give details of the
family discussions but said the sale was a decision taken
unanimously and the family would continue to manage its wealth
actively.

“No doubt everybody is around speculating about what went
on or didn’t go on. We as a family act together and Mary is
extremely supportive of the process of finding new business to
do,” Oppenheimer said in an interview.

“None of us are the sort of people who think you should
bury your talents in the ground.”

Cadiz’s Major said Jonathan is unlikely to feel as attached
to the diamond industry as his forebears.

“Why should he have the same passion and vision and desire
that they did? Let alone the connections and gravitas. Are Steve
Job’s and Bill Gates’ kids dying to take over the reins of Apple
and Microsoft? Hell no.”

But the issue will be a key topic for the family to
resolve over the coming months, as it waits for the
Anglo acquisition to complete and the cash to land in family
coffers.

“Clearly we have a bias toward Africa, we are based in
South Africa so we will be looking for opportunities here. We
are looking for opportunities in Botswana where we have
good connections and then elsewhere in Africa,” Oppenheimer
said.

A banker close to the family said the Oppenheimers are in
talks with an Africa-focused entity to set up another
joint venture worth about $300 million.

“It’s not about optics. Africa is growing at 6 percent per
annum. It makes good economic sense,” he said.

Malema, president of the ANC’s militant youth wing, was the biggest obstacle to Zuma winning the party endorsement in December next year to lead the ANC — and by implication the country — for another five years.

Malema is a party power broker who has been courted by Zuma’s foes as they line up their bids for leadership.

Considered too young now to join the government in a senior role, Malema could later line up his bid to take the reins of the ANC from those he is helping propel to the top ranks.

The five-year suspension handed down by a party disciplinary panel on Thursday, pending appeal, will cut the 30-year-old populist leader out of ANC politics, making it easier for Zuma to gather support for a further term.

“It has to be viewed as a victory for Jacob Zuma… It looks good for Zuma,” independent political analyst Nic Borain said.

The Youth League was instrumental in bringing Zuma to power but now backs Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe for South Africa’s top job.

“IMPORTANT POINT PERSON”

“Given that Malema was seen as an important point person for political factions within the ANC that have been looking to insert a more radical set of policies around land reform and state intervention in the mining sector, as well as a lightning rod for an anti-Zuma campaign, it is likely to be viewed as an important strengthening of President Zuma.” said Jeff Gable, Chief Economist at Absa Capital.

Malema’s strident calls to nationalize the giant gold and platinum mines have rattled investors and whites have been unnerved by his demands for land seizures.

His populist and militant speeches have lured hundreds of thousands of poor, unemployed black youths, many facing a bleak future, into his camp.

Even if Malema is out of politics for now, the issues that rallied the masses behind him will create further headaches for Zuma.

“Whatever they do with Malema, the big issues he has raised, and what he represents, won’t go away,” Christie Viljoen, an economist at NKC Independent Economists, said.

“The poverty, the inequalities and the unemployment continue.”

Millions of poor blacks still live in squalid shack settlements clustered around big cities in a country where overall unemployment officially is around 25 percent.

Youth unemployment is about 50 percent, and a recent study by the South African Institute of Race Relations said about half of people now aged 25-34 would never find work.

The festering anger in the black townships over poverty and unemployment could spill over into protests which could turn violent.

“The risk, particularly for the next five or six weeks as this decision is being bedded down, is that Malema’s only option outside of a formal appeal, or sitting out his sentence, is to take it to the streets,” Borain said.

(Editing by Jon Herskovitz and Michael Roddy)

The decision to send him into the political wilderness dealt a major blow to the career of Malema, whose push to nationalize mines in the world’s biggest platinum producer has unnerved investors.

Derek Hanekom, head of the African National Congress disciplinary panel, said Malema had been found guilty of causing divisions in the party.

“Ill-discipline is not a cure for frustration,” Hanekom told a news conference, with committee members saying it was one of the harshest punishments handed down to a party member.

“(His) careless, negligent or reckless pronouncements and utterances were a deviation of established and ongoing ANC policy and had the effect of embarrassing and bringing the organization into disrepute within and beyond the borders of South Africa,” Hanekom said.

South African stocks extended gains after news of the suspension of Malema, 30. The rand also firmed slightly after the announcement.

Malema told a rally in his home base to the north of Johannesburg that he would appeal the decision.

Moses Ramafhafi, a student present when Malema addressed the crowd at a university campus in Polokwane, 320 km (200 miles) north of Johannesburg, said Malema appeared upbeat.

“He said he is aware of the verdict and will appeal,” Ramafhafi told Reuters. “He thanked ANC youth supporters, saying he will fight to the end and he will win.”

The ANC has a solitary body to hear the appeal and Malema will stay in office until it reaches its decision. If the body, staffed with many senior ANC members who have been critical of Malema, upholds the verdict, the youth leader must step down.

He can then try to have the ANC’s National Executive Committee review the case. But the body headed by his foe, President Jacob Zuma, is unlikely to reinstate Malema.

‘HUGE MISCALCULATION’

“The principles enunciated are so watertight that it’s going to be difficult to appeal. The principles enunciated take us back to the ANC of Nelson Mandela … and that is where Julius Malema and his Youth League made a huge miscalculation,” political commentator Justice Malala said on news channel eNews.

The suspension of Malema should help pave the way for Zuma to secure a second term as ANC leader — and hence the country’s president — at a party conference in a year.

His suspension should also silence, at least for now, calls to take over mines, a move analysts said would bankrupt Africa’s largest economy.

But Zuma is not assured of re-election as ANC head. Many in the party say his leadership has been ineffective and that he has done little to improve the lives of the country’s poor black majority, who formed Malema’s support base.

Unemployment is officially around 25 percent. Millions still live in squalid shack settlements clustered around big cities. Youth unemployment is about 50 percent, and a recent study by the South African Institute of Race Relations said about half of people now aged 25-34 would never find work.

“Whatever they do with Malema the big issues he has raised and what he represents won’t go away. The poverty, the inequalities and the unemployment continue,” said Christie Viljoen, an economist, at NKC independent economist

“He’s not necessarily going to lie down. He’s going to continue being vocal and somebody else will probably step up to take his place at the Youth League,” Viljoen said.

ANC insiders say Malema is part of a plot to replace Zuma with a leader more sympathetic to the Youth League’s push to nationalize the mines and seize white-owned farms for redistribution to impoverished blacks.

Malema was writing a university exam at the time of the decision and the decision did little to alter the views of his legions of supporters who admire him for his rags-to-riches life and envision him as a future leader.

One Malema supporter said in a tweet: “You can silence the commander-in-chief of the revolution but you can never kill the revolution! Long live President Malema.”

(Additional reporting by Ed Cropley, Mmathabo Tladi and Peroshni Govender)

But on Thursday, Malema was suspended by the African National Congress for five years — putting his public political career on ice although it will probably not prevent him from wielding influence behind the scenes.

Malema, 30, has rattled investors with his calls to nationalize the country’s giant gold and platinum mines, unnerved whites by advocating land seizures and had to face a disciplinary panel twice in 18 months.

But his populist and militant speeches have lured tens of thousands of poor, unemployed black youths, many facing a bleak future, into his camp.

“He is speaking a truth the government is afraid of engaging on,” said Mark Schroeder, sub-Saharan Africa analyst at U.S. think-tank Stratfor. “He is not an easy one to ignore.”

Malema has been described as a reckless populist and a future leader of Africa’s biggest economy. To many in South Africa, he is simply known by his nickname “Juju.”

Born into poverty to the son of a domestic worker who worked for an Indian family in Limpopo, north of Johannesburg, Malema became politically active from an early age and rose through the ranks to become ANC Youth League president in 2008.

His supporters are the legions of young black South Africans still living in poverty nearly two decades after the end of apartheid and the formation of South Africa’s “Rainbow Nation.”

“Our main problem as a country is that we live under conditions that have made a Julius Malema a necessity,” Nyakallo Lephoto said recently on Twitter.

Unemployment is officially around 25 percent. Millions still live in squalid shack settlements clustered around big cities. Youth unemployment is about 50 percent, and a recent study by the South African Institute of Race Relations said about half of people now aged 25-34 would never find work.

SHREWD OPERATOR

Despite his age, Malema has become a wily and shrewd political operator, using poverty and the plight of the youth to build a powerbase that is often at odds with the official party line.

“With carefree abandon he knowingly gave the finger to the project of non-racialism, rubbished the notion of a rainbow nation and challenged the goals of the transition,” journalist Fiona Forde wrote in a recent book on Malema.

“He was a political entrepreneur operating in an environment of ample opportunity.”

His flamboyant lifestyle, including sushi parties and free-flowing champagne, has further drawn poor youths to him but in July the newspaper City Press, in an article vetted by a judge before publication, said Malema had a slush fund for bribes used to finance his lavish lifestyle.

But it was his outspoken comments and criticism of senior ANC leaders, including President Jacob Zuma, that landed him in the hottest water.

Malema had been defending his actions in front of a party disciplinary panel since late August but failed to convince party officials of his innocence.

The hearing was a gamble for both Zuma — who hopes to win a second term as ANC leader in December 2012 — and Malema, who has come out in support of Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe for the country’s top job.

Support from the Youth League can boost candidates in the ANC and Malema was seen as a kingmaker ahead of the party conference next year where new leaders will be elected.

Independent political analyst Nic Borain said Malema was part of a wider plan by contenders for the ANC presidency.

“This is not an accident of timing. This is about planning, planning by individuals and groups with large appetites for risk — especially when the prize is so rich and the price of failure so high.”

(Reporting by Marius Bosch; Editing by Rosalind Russell)

But on Thursday, Malema was suspended by the African National Congress for five years — putting his public political career on ice although it will probably not prevent him from wielding influence behind the scenes.

Malema, 30, has rattled investors with his calls to nationalise the country’s giant gold and platinum mines, unnerved whites by advocating land seizures and had to face a disciplinary panel twice in 18 months.

But his populist and militant speeches have lured tens of thousands of poor, unemployed black youths, many facing a bleak future, into his camp.

“He is speaking a truth the government is afraid of engaging on,” said Mark Schroeder, sub-Saharan Africa analyst at U.S. think-tank Stratfor. “He is not an easy one to ignore.”

Malema has been described as a reckless populist and a future leader of Africa’s biggest economy. To many in South Africa, he is simply known by his nickname “Juju.”

Born into poverty to the son of a domestic worker who worked for an Indian family in Limpopo, north of Johannesburg, Malema became politically active from an early age and rose through the ranks to become ANC Youth League president in 2008.

His supporters are the legions of young black South Africans still living in poverty nearly two decades after the end of apartheid and the formation of South Africa’s “Rainbow Nation.”

“Our main problem as a country is that we live under conditions that have made a Julius Malema a necessity,” Nyakallo Lephoto said recently on Twitter.

Unemployment is officially around 25 percent. Millions still live in squalid shack settlements clustered around big cities. Youth unemployment is about 50 percent, and a recent study by the South African Institute of Race Relations said about half of people now aged 25-34 would never find work.

SHREWD OPERATOR

Despite his age, Malema has become a wily and shrewd political operator, using poverty and the plight of the youth to build a powerbase that is often at odds with the official party line.

“With carefree abandon he knowingly gave the finger to the project of non-racialism, rubbished the notion of a rainbow nation and challenged the goals of the transition,” journalist Fiona Forde wrote in a recent book on Malema.

“He was a political entrepreneur operating in an environment of ample opportunity.”

His flamboyant lifestyle, including sushi parties and free-flowing champagne, has further drawn poor youths to him but in July the newspaper City Press, in an article vetted by a judge before publication, said Malema had a slush fund for bribes used to finance his lavish lifestyle.

But it was his outspoken comments and criticism of senior ANC leaders, including President Jacob Zuma, that landed him in the hottest water.

Malema had been defending his actions in front of a party disciplinary panel since late August but failed to convince party officials of his innocence.

The hearing was a gamble for both Zuma — who hopes to win a second term as ANC leader in December 2012 — and Malema, who has come out in support of Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe for the country’s top job.

Support from the Youth League can boost candidates in the ANC and Malema was seen as a kingmaker ahead of the party conference next year where new leaders will be elected.

Independent political analyst Nic Borain said Malema was part of a wider plan by contenders for the ANC presidency.

“This is not an accident of timing. This is about planning, planning by individuals and groups with large appetites for risk — especially when the prize is so rich and the price of failure so high.”

(Reporting by Marius Bosch; Editing by Rosalind Russell)

The $5.1 billion the family will get for its 40 percent
stake in the diamond giant could see a large chunk ploughed back
into Africa for private equity investment or philantropic work
in the world’s poorest continent.

The Oppenheimers have been involved at De Beers since 1927,
when Ernst Oppenheimer, who founded Anglo American a decade
earlier, took control of the group.

The family’s fortune has been intertwined with South
Africa’s history and economy ever since.

“At the end of the day this has been a very momentous
decision for the family. We didn’t approach Anglo, Anglo
approached us,” said James Teeger, managing director of family
holding company E. Oppenheimer & Son.

The world’s largest diamond miner, De Beers was established
in 1888 in South Africa. Its corporate slogan ‘A diamond is
forever’ was created in 1947 and named the greatest advertising
line of 20th century by Advertising Age magazine.

De Beers Chairman Nicky Oppenheimer, educated at Harrow and
Oxford, is a passionate cricketer who has his own cricket ground
outside Johannesburg. He has been at the helm since 1998 and his
father Harry was chairman of De Beers for 27 years until 1984.

6^^^

Anglo American has been trying to buy the family’s stake for
years but the Oppenheimers declined to sell — even when the
2008 global financial crisis forced shareholders to pump cash
into De Beers when diamond sales and demand for luxury goods
plunged.

Since then analysts said the Oppenheimers sought to step up
the pace of diversifying their investments.

The deal happened very fast, Teeger said, adding that
diversification was one of the factors which convinced the
family to sell.

“This thing happened extremely quickly, (Anglo chairman)
John Parker approached Nicky Oppenheimer a few weeks ago,
literally three of four weeks ago.”

AFRICA INVESTMENT

The speed of the transaction meant the family had no
specific plans on how the capital will be deployed.

“The one thing for sure is that we are going to deploy a
substantial amount of the capital in Africa,” Teeger said.

The Oppenheimer family holding company already has a private
equity arm operating in South Africa, investing in mid-sized
firms.

In August it set up a $300 million private equity fund with
Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings to invest primarily in
consumer goods and agricultural sectors across Africa.

The transaction brings to an end the era when the global
diamond trade was driven by relationships between a small group
of people, said Martin Rapaport, Chairman of the Rapaport Group,
and a well-known commentator on diamond industry developments.

“This is the final vestige of a time when a community of
people working together directed the industry,” he said.

De Beers tightly controlled the diamond market for decades
before changing its strategy in 2000, buying up and stockpiling
diamonds to control gem prices.

For the Oppenheimers, worth around $7 billion according to
Forbes magazine which put them in 136th place of the world’s
billionares, not much will probably change after the De Beers
sale.

They are passionate conservationists and own the Tswalu
Kalahari Reserve, the largest private game reserve in South
Africa.

Their Brenthurst mansion in Johannesburg is famed for its
gardens which have been opened to the public and the family is
involved in numerous charity and upliftment projects in South
Africa.

Nicky Oppenheimer told South Africa’s Mining Weekly trade
publication last month that relaxing is his hobby.

And when asked what his personal best achievement was, he
replied: “Choosing my parents very well”.

On Thursday he was leading hundreds of his African National Congress Youth League supporters on a march to the Chamber of Mines and Johannesburg Stock Exchange to press demands to nationalise mines.

Malema, 30, has rattled investors with his calls to nationalise the country’s giant gold and platinum mines, unnerved whites by advocating land seizures and had to face a disciplinary panel twice in less than 18 months.

But his populist and militant speeches have lured tens of thousands of poor, unemployed black youths, many facing a bleak future, into his camp.

“He is speaking a truth the government is afraid of engaging on,” said Mark Schroeder, sub-Saharan Africa analyst at U.S. think-tank Stratfor. “He is not an easy one to ignore,”

Malema has been described as a reckless populist and a future leader of Africa’s biggest economy. To many in South Africa, he is simply known by his nickname “Juju.”

Born into poverty to the son of a domestic worker who worked for an Indian family in Limpopo, north of Johannesburg, Malema became politically active from an early age and rose through the ranks to become ANC Youth League president in 2008.

His supporters are the legions of young black South Africans still living in poverty nearly two decades after the end of apartheid and the formation of South Africa’s “Rainbow Nation.”

“Our main problem as a country is that we live under conditions that have made a Julius Malema a necessity,” Nyakallo Lephoto said on the popular micro-blogging site Twitter where Thursday’s youth league march was being discussed.

Unemployment is officially around 25 percent. Millions still live in squalid shack settlements clustered around big cities. Youth unemployment is about 50 percent, and a study by the South African Institute of Race Relations said about half of people now aged 25-34 would never find work.

SHREWD OPERATOR

Despite his relative youth, Malema has become a wily and shrewd political operator, using poverty and the plight of the youth to build a powerbase that is often at odds with the official party line.

“With carefree abandon he knowingly gave the finger to the project of non-racialism, rubbished the notion of a rainbow nation and challenged the goals of the transition,” journalist Fiona Forde wrote in a recent book on Malema.

“He was a political entrepreneur operating in an environment of ample opportunity.”

His flamboyant lifestyle, including sushi parties and free-flowing champagne, has further drawn poor youths to him but in July the newspaper City Press, in an article vetted by a judge before publication, said Malema had a slush fund for bribes used to finance his lavish lifestyle.

But it was his outspoken comments and criticism of senior ANC leaders, including President Jacob Zuma, that landed him in hot water.

Malema has been defending his actions in front of a party disciplinary panel since late August.

The hearing is a gamble for both Zuma — who hopes to win a second term as ANC leader in December 2012 — and Malema, who has come out in support of Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe for the country’s top job.

Support from the Youth League can boost candidates in the ANC and Malema is seen as a kingmaker ahead of the party conference next year where new leaders will be elected.

If found guilty of bringing the ANC into disrepute, he faces suspension or expulsion from the party, a punishment which would put his political career on ice.

Independent political analyst Nic Borain said Malema was part of a wider plan by contenders for the ANC presidency.

“This is not an accident of timing. This is about planning, planning by individuals and groups with large appetites for risk — especially when the prize is so rich and the price of failure so high.”

If he is found not guilty by the ANC, Malema could be back with a vengeance, Forde said in her book.

“Should that happen, South Africa can expect an even more emboldened Malema than they have seen before, a man who will pull out all the stops to hijack the mother body (of the ANC) at the end of 2012.”

(Editing by Ed Cropley; Editing by Jon Boyle)