Supporters of ANC Youth Leader Clash with Police

South African police fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse hundreds of supporters of controversial ANC youth leader Julius Malema on Tuesday, as he faced a party disciplinary panel.

While senior members of the African National Congress considered whether to suspend or even expel the influential firebrand, his followers staged a show of strength outside its headquarters by hurling stones and bottles at police.

A police officer was hospitalized and five journalists were injured in clashes with police and supporters, who set fire to the ANC's flag and T-shirts bearing the face of President Jacob Zuma.

The pair were once allies but Malema is being tried on charges of bringing the ANC into disrepute and sowing divisions in the ruling party after reports linking him to a movement to oust Zuma as party leader.

Malema, who is charged along with five other youth league officials, could be expelled from the ANC at the closed-door hearing, after being found guilty of criticizing Zuma by the party's disciplinary committee last year.

The hearings are expected to last until Friday.

The firebrand leader emerged from the hearing to urge his unruly supporters to stop the violence and show respect to the party.

"We must never burn the flag of the ANC because it is who we are," he said.

The party's secretary general Gwede Mantashe had earlier insisted that the violence would not disrupt the proceedings, but later announced that the hearings would be moved outside Johannesburg.

"We think people of Johannesburg deserve to have a space and time to do their business normally," Mantashe said. He refused to divulge the location chosen for the next hearing.

Police early Monday closed several main streets in the city and cordoned off the area around Luthuli House.

Malema followers ran through the area whistling, blowing vuvuzelas and carrying messages of support for their leader.

Although the situation had calmed by midday, his supporters were singing the controversial anti-apartheid struggle song 'dubula ibhunu' whose chorus loosely translates as "shoot the white farmer".

The violence was condemned by the youth league, an organization founded by the anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela and a key component of the ANC's electoral college.

"The ANCYL will never be associated with unruly, disruptive elements and agents provocateurs who want to portray genuine support and solidarity gathering in a bad light," said the league in a statement.

The violence was also criticized by ANC military veterans who said the league's actions were "meant to plant the seed of a civil war".

Malema was a key ally in Zuma's rise to power and the toppling of his predecessor Thabo Mbeki, but has since fallen foul of the president.

Zuma, who became South Africa's third black president in 2009 after earlier ousting Mbeki from the helm of the ANC, is struggling to consolidate his support in the party ahead of its elective conference next year.

Zuma is hoping to be re-elected as party leader which will allow him to stand for second term as president in elections in 2014.

However the "Young Lions", as the youth wing is called, would rather see him replaced by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe -- a change that would almost certainly mean Motlanthe becoming SouthAfrica's next president.

Malema is also in trouble over his call last month for regime change in neighbouring Botswana, which he said had a "puppet government" that was "in full cooperation with imperialists."

He later apologised after a public rebuke from the ANC leadership.

Malema has become one of South Africa's most controversial figures since being elected president of the youth league in 2008.

With his calls to nationalise the country's mines and redistribute wealth to impoverished blacks, he has become a galvanising figure for millions of black youths, who face a 25-percent unemployment rate and an economy still troubled by striking inequalities 17 years after the end of apartheid.

But his often vehement rhetoric has constantly made him a thorn in the side of senior ANC figures, including Zuma.