South African voters should be the ones to "punish" ANC president Jacob Zuma if he is corrupt, ANC Youth League president Julius Malema said on Tuesday.

"Leave Zuma to the voters to punish him. If he is so corrupt and he must be punished, let the voters do that," Malema told a press briefing at ANC headquarters in Johannesburg.

"Why do you want to subject him to the hands of the few, the judiciary, the judges and the media? Leave it to the voters, 23 million must decide whether Zuma becomes president or not, not the judges."

He was responding to Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille's threat to approach the Constitutional Court to prevent Zuma from being the country's next president while still facing corruption charges.

"Leave it to the voters"

He said Zille's approach was an "old apartheid tactic".

"When we say Zille represents... the apartheid system, we mean this. When they can't defeat them they must arrest them and lock them up," he said.

He reiterated that Zuma remained innocent until proven guilty.

Malema also said many ANC members who had defected to the Congress of the People were now returning to the ruling party, saying they were "surprised by [Cope's] arrangement of leadership for hire".

He claimed that the party's selection of Bishop Mvume Dandala as their presidential candidate had demoralised many Cope members, including the party's current president, Terror Lekota.

He said Cope was formed because many of its founding members said they could not be led by "immoral" leaders, but then did not find moral leaders within their own ranks.

The Youth League said it was nominating its deputy president, Andile Lungisi, to be the chairperson of the National Youth Development Agency's board.

Malema said the ANC Youth League would try and pursuade the IFP Youth Brigade and the Freedom Front Plus Youth to join the board.

Sapa