The ANC Youth League wants its former leaders on the list for the national assembly, its president Julius Malema said on Thursday.

"We want to see continuity and change. We also want to see former leaders of the youth league accommodated in that list," he said addressing media at Luthuli House in Johannesburg.

Malema said the league wanted a balanced list in terms of race and gender.

Asked where the league would like to see President Kgalema Motlanthe in the new government, Malema said as deputy president of the country.

"President Kgalema Motlanthe cannot choose where he wants to go. The ANC will decide.

"We are appealing to him that he shouldn't choose... a government protocol is not important to us. A former president who's now a deputy president, so what?"

Malema stressed that it would not be a demotion as rumoured in the media because Motlanthe was only a caretaker president.

He appealed to Motlanthe to take up the position of deputy president saying that would prevent another Mbeki/Zuma era within the African National Congress, in reference to former president Thabo Mbeki and ANC president Jacob Zuma.

Preventing another split?

"If he doesn't take up the position, some members might feel he's being marginalised and start rallying behind him. We don't want that."

The youth leader said the issue of gender equality for premiers should be taken into account, but was not an overriding consideration.

"When it comes to premiers, one can't expect a balanced scenario with four men and four woman but there would be definitely female premiers. We are not going to come out of that meeting with a 'boys choir'," he said.

Malema said the African National Congress Youth League would be watching "very closely" the progress made by government in improving the living conditions of South African citizens.

"We will openly strengthen the voice of the poor when they protest for houses, water, electricity, sanitation, health care and jobs."

Malema said the youth league would fight corruption.

"We will be the first to speak up whenever there are instances of corruption," he said.

This was because some people thought ANC president Jacob Zuma was corrupt, and therefore Zuma and his Cabinet had a responsibility to prove those people wrong.

"They must prove that they are not in government to enrich themselves," he said.

Malema stressed that the league was not owned by individuals, but it had a permanent character of militancy and radicalism and "it doesn't matter who is in power".

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