“Julius Malema is a bit of an idiot,” claimed Jonathan Griffiths, a cartoonist and Rhodes student, while waiting outside the General Lecture Theatre for the 5pm lecture by ANC Youth League national chairman Julius Malema at Rhodes University on Thursday March 19. By 4.45pm already, dozens of students were gathered at the entrance of the lecture venue trying to get in. “But the scary thing is that he apparently has lots of power and influence,” said Griffiths.
Policemen blocked the doorway and were not letting more people in “because the venue was full,” said a waiting student. ANC members were upset at a group of activists from the Gender Action Project (GAP), that were inside the venue holding up placards with controversial statements made by Malema and Jacob Zuma.
Lecture organisers announced that “Malema was prevented by the university for coming to speak” and some people left, but most ANC members remained and were singing and dancing. They sang political songs and then became aggressive to the GAP members and sang Umshini Wami (Bring Me My Machine Gun) and other war songs.
A speech was delivered by Buti Manamela, secretary-general of the Young Communist League (YCL), who encouraged youth to vote and campaign “door to door, night club to night club” for the ANC. He ridiculed UDM leader Bantu Holomisa and had the crowd hysterical with jokes about Cope and other political parties.
Manamela said that “Rhodes (University) exists within a community and is not an ivory tower. It is part of South Africa and part of Grahamstown, and it needs to be a reflection of this community”.
Manamela again claimed that Malema had been prevented by the university from speaking. Larissa Klazinga, the student services officer, claimed that this was not true. And Luzuko Buku, chairperson of Rhodes YCL, later confirmed that the university did not prevent Malema from speaking. Despite video footage from news reports that confirmed the organisers had announced that “Malema had been prevented”, Buku denied that such claims were made.
The national anthem was sung immediately after the speech and the event called to a close. The GAP members were angered by the absence of a Q&A session and shouted out. They claimed they had been quietly waiting to ask questions and “this was their right”. This led to a verbal confrontation between the activists and ANC members, which had to be diffused by campus security.
Links to video clips from the event:
wat are you trying to say in this article?
Malema and Zuma’s daughter were here at the weekend. If I had known in advance – I would also have gone. After all – he is SA’s biggest reality show! Does not mean I would vote for him.
While I agree that, like most constituents of the ANC’s benefit club for mutual flattery, Malema is “a bit of an idiot”, it strikes me as a jot unfair to declare that he failed Rhodes despite evidence (in the form of “video footage from news reports”, no less) that Rhodes failed him.
Do make up your mind.
Rodney Ulyate
Julius is making a career of not showing up. If only he would that forever…
And the thoughts you intend to lead us into debating about are ……….?
Clemmi- I simply attended the event and reported on it.
Lyndall- Good luck with deciding who to vote for.
The whole idea of a University white boy calling a balck politician “an idiot” strikes me as racist. Malema is not stupid. He is irresponsible. Your article is such a waste of time to read.
Sounds to me like Julius got wind of some tough questioning coming his way from the Rhodes crowd (the thinking Rhodes crowd of whom there are many; not the Rhodes ANC supporters), and decided to run away.
Viva No-show Malema. Haha…
I remember the chaos in 2004 when the ANC was invited by the Rhodes Association for Political Awareness to give a speech in the GLT in the lead up to the general election. The person who was supposed to be doing the speaking simply never arrived! We were left with some local ANC counsellor who was extremely unprepared and didn’t really have much to say. Seems nothing has changed.
Every other political party was on time, interesting and informative.
I got extremely disappointed and angry after coming to the end of this article, and realizing that there was nothing else. I even tried scrolling further down hoping for the gist of the article elsewhere, even just a one sentence conclusion.
“The whole idea of a University white boy calling a balck [sic] politician ‘an idiot’,” Phillipa Lipinsky squealed, “strikes me as racist.”
Which is ironic, given that Bilal is not white and that Lipinsky’s effusion is comfortably the most racist on this page. The assumption of racism in someone merely because that someone happens to be of a certain race is, mirabile dictu, racist in itself.
Rodney Ulyate
“The whole idea of a University white boy calling a balck [sic] politician ‘an idiot’,” Phillipa Lipinsky squealed, “strikes me as racist.”
Ironic, that, because the assumption of racism in someone merely because that someone happens to be of a certain race is, mirabile dictu, racist in itself.
Rodney Ulyate
Needless to say, I should like only the second of my last two comments to be taken seriously.
Rodney Ulyate