The suspension of ANC Youth League president Julius Malema on Wednesday was a strategic move by the ANC's top officials, said political analysts.

"Malema's suspension is an attempt to show they [ANC] mean business and intend to try and rule," Steven Friedman said.

Eusebius McKaiser said it was clear that President Jacob Zuma was trying to derail Malema.

"The biggest point is that Zuma clearly wants a second term [as president] and wants to derail him [Malema]. This is an attempt to make it more difficult for ANC leaders to be seen with Julius Malema," he said.

The ANC's national disciplinary committee (NDC) announced on Wednesday that Malema's ANC's membership had been suspended with immediate effect.

This followed Malema's verbal attack on Zuma on Friday, when he called him a dictator and said he was suppressing the ANCYL.

During a centenary lecture at the University of the Witwatersrand on Friday, Malema said: "It is under President Zuma that we have seen the youth of the ANC being traumatised, being expelled from their own home.

"It is under President Zuma we have seen a critical voice being suppressed. We have seen under President Zuma, democracy being replaced with dictatorship."

Malema is appealing his expulsion from the ANC for sowing division in the party and for bringing it into disrepute. The appeals hearing takes place on April 12.

Although ANC top officials insist there is unity within their ranks, both Friedman and McKaiser said they were not convinced.

"The problem is that you can't apply rules like this when you are still pretending you don't have a contest for leadership," said Friedman.

He said the ANC was "pretending" that people within the organisation were not contesting for positions at the party's elective conference in Mangaung in December.

"You can get rid of Malema and he will probably go, but he's not the problem," said Friedman.

He said he did not see the point of having Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe and ANC treasurer general Mathews Phosa attend a press briefing in Johannesburg on Tuesday when they could not voice their opinions.

"No one believes in the show of unity, because people cannot openly express themselves. What is the point of having Motlanthe and Phosa appear with the president when you can't ask them if they are campaigning against him," said Friedman.

Malema and the ANCYL had continuously voiced their preference for Motlanthe to replace Zuma and for Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula to replace Gwede Mantashe as the ANC's secretary general.

McKaiser said it annoyed Zuma that Malema was backing Motlanthe.

"Zuma is trying to get a grip on his own re-election," he said.

It would now be more difficult for those such as Motlanthe, Mbalula and Phosa – who are all suspected to be strong allies of the ANCYL leader – to "benefit covertly" by being seen with Malema on a public platform.

Friedman said Malema was irrelevant.

"There are factions... Zuma's problem was that people were speculating that his deputy [Motlanthe] and treasurer general [Phosa] were campaigning against him.

"He [Zuma] had to display unity and had to show that he was in charge of the organisation. This was an attempt to show that he is in charge," said Friedman.

McKaiser said if the ANC's national disciplinary committee of appeal (NDCA) upheld Malema's expulsion, the new charge for his comments on Friday would become null and void.

"Why not just wait till next week? Well, by invoking a summary suspension they [the ANC] are able to prevent him from attending any meetings, from making statements and participating in Limpopo's provincial structures," said McKaiser.

"The ANC and top six are so fed up with him they want him immediately neutralised, and don't want to wait a week."

He said that although the NDCA still had to confirm Malema's expulsion, it was like any other legal process, which meant new charges could be brought against him.