Divisions and ill-discipline in the ANC have reached a new low, with even the party's top six officials suspected of leaking details of confidential meetings to outsiders.

This was among the startling revelations made by President Jacob Zuma and the ANC national executive at a special four-day meeting in August.

Details of the meeting - convened by Zuma to tackle internal party differences - are contained in an ANC NEC bulletin sent to party structures .

The bulletin states that the meeting, which took place over the same weekend the party announced it was charging youth league leader Julius Malema for sowing divisionin its ranks, "noted" that "cohesion and commonality of purpose" were at a "low ebb".

"The special NEC noted that there have been lapses of discipline in and among some in the NEC, including leaks even among officials."

ANC officials comprised Zuma, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, his deputy and North West premier, Thandi Modise, national chairman Baleka Mbete and treasurer-general Mathews Phosa.

In his closing remarks to the meeting, Zuma said the officials would have to deal with discipline in their ranks if they hoped to steer the party on the right track.

"A point was made that the officials must do an introspection, so as to assess if there are problems with the aim of ensuring they are not a source of the problem, among them being the leaking of information to other comrades. We need to deal with this."

Zuma also warned the party that it ran the risk of collapsing as an organisation if it did not discipline members who stepped out of line, no matter their standing in the party.

"If this matter is not handled properly, this organisation is going to be fragmented and ultimately collapse. We should not mislead one another. We cannot close our eyes to the constitution. We need not create a crisis. If there are untouchables, then this is an association of friends, not an organisation," he said just days after Malema was charged.

The Sunday Times previously reported that a bid by pro-Malema NEC members to have the disciplinary case discussed by the meeting was shot down.

That, however, did not stop Zuma from remarking on the issue in his closing remarks. "We cannot suggest that, in dealing with the youth league, we are dealing with children. These are old and mature comrades."

Zuma has fallen out with the youth league, which propelled him to the ANC leadership in Polokwane in 2007.

The league has been vocal in its preference for Minister of Sport Fikile Mbalula to take over from Mantashe as secretary-general next year and in its drive to have the nationalisation of mines adopted as ANC policy.

But the special NEC said it was concerned that the nationalisation issue was being used as a campaign platform ahead of the 2012 Mangaung conference.

Zuma told the meeting that the youth league must respect the mother body and that disciplinary processes were not being used to silence its leaders.

"However, engagement must be in line with the culture and discipline of the organisation," he said.

In a political report he delivered on the first day of the four-day meeting, Zuma said the party risked being too inward-looking, with its leaders focusing their energies on internal leadership issues, rather than governance.

"There is a view that, instead of discussing the objective situation facing our people on the ground, comrades spend time discussing each other and whom they need to lobby into or out of positions they are elected to."

He was also scathing of the role played by the ANC's trade union alliance partner, Cosatu, saying the federation treated the ruling party like an enemy.

"The tendency of using Cosatu meetings to attack the ANC is unacceptable. The tone towards the ANC was somewhat problematic at the recent Cosatu central committee meeting. The ANC was treated as if it was an adversary, instead of an alliance partner, by some elements within Cosatu. The language used was angry and rejectionist in content."

Zuma said the ruling party needed to reclaim the intellectual space, especially from civil society groups who argued that the ANC was working against the constitution.

"We need to respond to the emergence of an alliance of think-tanks, some of [whom] appear to have a sinister and sophisticated agenda. The behaviour of this loose alliance gives an impression that those who fail to tackle the ANC on political platforms have decided to use the courts to get their way."

Zuma recently faced a Constitutional Court challenge from a coalition of civil society groupings when he tried to extend the term of former chief justice Sandile Ngcobo.

Meanwhile, the special NEC, in its state of the organisation report, resolved to develop its own campaigns "in defence of the constitution against counter-revolutionary forces" and to deal with the erosion of the standing of the ANC in society to counter perceptions that the ruling party is corrupt and riddled with corruption, factionalism and careerism.

At the same time, the special NEC, in its state of the organisation report, agreed to get tough on corruption, especially when ANC members were involved.

"In part, comrades who commit errors expect the ANC to protect them even where they are in the wrong," the NEC said in its report.

It also vowed to protect the public protector's office and other Chapter 9 institutions, but "retains the right to comment on negative and hostile pronouncements by these institutions."

By The Times (SA)