JOHANNESBURG - South Africa's suspended youth leader Julius Malema has appealed against the ruling party's decision to sack him.

He was suspended from the African National Congress (ANC) for five years for sowing division in the party.

Mr Malema's lawyers claim that the decision did not follow proper ANC procedure and want it overturned.

Once a close ally of President Jacob Zuma, Mr Malema is now accusing him of ignoring poor South Africans who voted him into power 2009.

Mr Malema's appeal before the party's Disciplinary Appeals Panel is largely based on the claim that the committee did not give him the opportunity to argue in mitigation of sentence at the end of the disciplinary process.

The ANC suspended him in November 2011 after he was found guilty of three of the charges against him - including bringing the party into disrepute by calling for regime change in democratic Botswana - a position which contravenes party and government policy.

Mr Malema, who once said he would kill for President Zuma is in a bitter contest to unseat him as head of the ANC and wants to replace him with deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, says the BBC's Milton Nkosi in Johannesburg.

The ANC leader automatically becomes the party's candidate - and therefore strong favourite - in the country's presidential elections in 2014.