If Julius Malema learned a few lessons yesterday it was that neither Gwede Mantashe nor Blade Nzimande will put up with his fiery rhetoric and neither are the people to start with when he’s trying to make a name for himself.
Indeed the ANC Youth League president, constantly fed a diet of “boys will be boys” whenever senior members of the ANC complain about coming under attack from him, must have started to believe that he was untouchable.
At least until yesterday.
As the “leading” proponent of nationalisation — or that is what he would have the populous believe — he would probably have been expecting a rousing reception as he arrived at the SA Communist Party’s special conference. The small matter of his attack on SACP deputy general-secretary Jeremy Cronin surely forgotten by now.
But it wasn’t to be as Malema found himself being heckled and booed by the delegates who seemed somewhat impervious to his charms.
Accordingly Malema decided to flex his muscles and publicly slated ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe’s lack of leadership in not dealing with this nuisance. He also demanded the opportunity to address the conference.
Mantashe then acting in his capacity as SACP national chairperson rather than ANC general-secretary duly refused the request.
Malema together with Tony Yengeni and Billy Masetlha, both of whom had received more of the same from delegates, then left the conference.
Enter Blade Nzimande :
Where the SACP general-secretary had been scathing on those — including the media, who had questioned — his dual roles, now he was outright belligerent. He went right for the throat of Malema and the ANCYL.
He slammed their approach to nationalisation as opportunistic and called them a “faction of parasites who use their political power and connections for private gain”.
In no uncertain terms he called their attempt to use the “historical documents and position of our movement” as the machinery to further their own self- interests.
“The great majority of young militants who have flirted with this style of long nights of long knives in bottom-baring conferences, with symbolic coffins for rivals, are not beyond constructive engagement. Together, led by the ANC and its broad movement, let us ensure that the noble task of black emancipation is not captured by a faction of parasites who use and abuse their political connections for their own private accumulation.” (Times LIVE)
Of course all of this will infuriate Malema who was particularly annoyed about being called a mouthpiece for capitalists.
“Malema, whose recent acquisitions include a Johannesburg north townhouse, a Range Rover SUV and a Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG, took offence when delegates attending the SACP congress at the Turfloop campus of the University of Limpopo in Mankweng booed him and called him a mouthpiece for capitalists.” (Sowetan)
Which leaves South Africans to ponder whether the great “tenderpreneur” — as Nzimande styled him — understands the enormous irony in acquiring the trappings of capitalism and then going spare when the SACP point it out.
One thing is for certain both Malema and the ANCYL now know that they had best reserve their broadsides for lesser targets. If they go after the SACP or YCL they’ll be getting as good as — if not better — than they dished out.
This entry was posted
on Friday, December 11th, 2009 at 10:47 am and is filed under Perspective.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
26 Responses to “Mantashe for president”
@Traps
I will criticize you for the 1st time, my brother. Julius should not have been given the platform; the SACP had a right to deny him. The manner in which they did it, will not be a joke in a few months’ time. Mark my words.
Julius has no manners and he does not have the word ‘limit’ in his vocabulary and in his thought processes. The events of yesterday will prove extremely detrimental to the tripartite alliance and general civility for months to come.
Traps, nominating Gwede for president is downright stupid. He did not behave like a grown up person yesterday.
Jeremy Cronin did NOT behave like a grown up when he made the bling-bling comments to Julius. Julius was just his old self with the White Messiah comments. Not very admirable. For Gwede to wade in there like a cowboy in a bad mood, it will unleash a serious run of bad blood for months to come.
The politics of this country will not progress beyond this level as long as we feed the beast called Malema.
Slapping down a ridiculously self-important and moronic little loudmouth doth not a president make. Not in a country with any sort of hope for a better future. Mantashe’s unfit to lead a dog.
Now you are relevant and matter to the SA discource. Matter is not anything that occupies space. Matter is anything that has an effect and influence on the course of events. You are beginning to cover the words of organisations or people whose words have and effect on what is the policy in the country whether you like what they say or not.
Covering topics to echo the sentiments of your traditional audience of people who happen to have access to internet by virtue of apartheid makes you popular by virtue of the digital divide, but not popular by the virtue of the SA demographics.
It is good of you to notice that Malema is mainly popular because the media makes him out to be representative of the popular opinion.
As a white Afrikaans South African I obviously do not fully understand the dynamics of everyday black politics, but it is bocoming clear to me that Malema is not as popular as he would like to make out - and I agree with Madoda that the media give him a lot more “virtual” support than what he deserves. I just wish for the sake of all in SA that the radicals in black politics will realise that radicalism in any form has never yielded good results in the long run. Think of any country where radicalism plays a significant role (Iran, Zim and Iraq for example)and look at the state they find themselves in. Hopefully the moderate majority in SA will grow and take firm action in neutralising the Malemas of our country.
@Madoda,
I don’t recall there being internet during apartheid. You obviously have access to internet, how come apartheid didn’t deprive you of the privilege. Maybe you were an impimpi?
The 2007 polokwane class project seem to be disintergrating since there is no rallying point for them anymore, Thabo Mbeki was toppled in a bloodless coup and Jacob Zuma became SA president at the expense of law abidding citizens no matter what.
Malema and his comrades (of convinience) must remember that in politics there is no permanant alliance, not so long ago he was the darling of the left when they heckled and booed Former president Mbeki as he was delivering a very sober political report in Polokwane in 2007. It was Malema who was used as the chief spokesperson of the unruly Zuma Mob who sang about machine guns and vowed to kill not for the course of the revolution but for the personal ambitions of one individual to ascend to the Union buildings no matter what.
Worse still , the image and the mother of a sitting president were burned and insulted , a culture and practice that is alien and new to the democratic movement. Political bullying and intolerance chracterised this clique of anarchists those who differed with this manner of proceedings were castigated and dismisssed , heckled and booed others were forcefully driven to COPE by the polokwane truimphalists.
Now they are crying foul when they get a taste of their own medicine. The intention is to gradually oust Mantashe in favour of another disrescpectful loose canon Mbalula at the next ANC congress. Malema must remember what i personally told him in the cosas nec in 1998. misguided populism costs.
Douglas Mthukwane on December 12th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Leon you seem to have blinkers or some strange glasses. The USA is the most radical country on earth. It kills as a means of progress.War is peace is one of the most radical statements of all time.
But it is not the radical part that is wrong. It is the killing that makes it wrong.
It is what is done that makes for wrong or right.
Words apart (whomsoevers’ they be), the group action of the SACP gave me the sort of warm, fuzzy feeling I haven’t felt since Nelson Mandela reiterated that I was actually part of South Africa.
The booing of Malema seemed to indicate that the SACP was prepared to protect a person (their own) despite his white skin, against the sort of force (which just happens to have a black skin) which I feel is capable of dooming this wonderful country for ever.
The cherry on the top would be if someone could explain to ‘the people’ that nationalising the mines could just make them even poorer than they presently are and won’t put gold in every pocket.
Traps,while you still getting excited with the “Tenderpreneur” insult,let me remind you that the Nzimande himself lives in Emmarentia and at one point drove a Range Rover.This sort of shameless hypocrisy is possible when you have one foot in communism and the entire body in Capitalism.Careerist to the end.
‘Isn’t ironic’, this are lyrics from Alanis Morrissete’s song, the communists putting their foot down against nationalisation of our mineral wealth! What is the world coming to? Talk about Gucci communism. Communist Party is running the risk of rendering itself irrelevant to meaningful political discourse.
As we speak, the heights of economy in the west are nationalised already because of systematic failure of the banking sector.
Do people really fail to realise that mineral wealth is finite, which means unlike any other economic sector, the state needs to get its fair share of the returns in order to fund educational programmes that we will be sorely needed once the minerals are exhausted? The Saudis, Chinese, Russians do it. You do not need an economics degree to understand that for God’s sake.
It is easy to kill the messenger in the form of Malema, and that is what the so-called communists are doing. The ‘invincible hand’ theory has new and surprising supporters! Anyone for trickle down theory? I see a hand raised, oh that is Gwede Mantashe.
As for the YCL, the least said about them the better.
If I were Julius, I would even bother addressing their congress. We wait with collective breath to read about some ground-breaking resolutions that will come out of the congress.
The ANC has carried this albatross around its neck for far too long. It is about time they bloody stand on their own.
Malema owns 2 expensive cars and lives is a top suburb???
Who is paying for all this?
I’ve often asked the questions:
1)How can a person aged 28 be cosidered a ‘youth’?
2)Why don’t we hear anything about what is being done for the youth such as education, HIV, teenage pregnancy or job creation?
All we hear from the ANCYL is about politics and how Malema is the ‘president in waiting’.
With 20% for woodwork, he couldn’t make a chair, let alone a cabinet!
Grant, Malema said he was 40 on eTV the other day.
Nakedi, our mines are costing more money than ever before. Water must be pumped out from now until doomsday, for instance.
Botswana doesn’t know how to find what it owes De Beers.
Public money would go to finance the industry leaving less for social welfare, education, health, etc. For example: Eskom, SAA, SABC. Nationalisation does not mean all take and no give.
Any partnership requires partners to contribute their fair share, according to their stake.
Do you really want the sort of people who run our local municipalities to run the mines?
MLH
Letme take you on road trip of contemporary economic history.
Not so long ago, SASOL(energy), ISCOR(steel)TELKOM(communications)etc, were state-owned enterprises. It worked fine for the regime.There was a logic to that, that logic is still valid today.
You know why there was a sudden reversal of thinking about state ownership? A black man took ownership of state economic levers of power in 1994.
The free market fundamentalists were not complaining about state-ownership of strategic assets.Ther Damascean change of heart happened when some people realised that black government would then have too much influence. Why do you think our nuclear arm programme was dismantled just before the government came to power?
I feel sorry for those who peddle small government mentality, black or white , because they somehow think that the small man will be taken care of if we just work hard enough.dream again.
When will the South African politicians really grow up.
We were fooled that the Rainbow Nations was for one and all.Mr. Malema the only people that are living the rainbow dream are people with connections and that is the crime you support.Fight for the true moral values that thousand of youth lost their lives for while you were planning how to make chairs.
The Tripartite Alliance has become nothing more than a mangy three-headed dog with nothing better to do than for each head to chase the same tail, each getting a chance to bite itself firmly on the butt.
@ jeff. There was internet in internet prior to 1994. Maybe you were to young to know about it. We got it here in 1992/3. 28 bps was top speed slightly faster than a fax but it was a godsent to those who used it commumnicate by email.
Privilage had nothing to do with it. It was matter of your company using new technology. The fact that Madondo had access meant that he had seen the light far earlier than most. Likely being diligent invested his hard earned money in this new technology. I did and my children leaned facts faster than those at school. They were able to write compositions way above their peers. Today these are higly sucessful people. My job at the time was low paid but worth the sacrifice.
It’s quite obvious that this debacle can only be sorted when other “Cadres” realise that it is Malema who has the best bling and therefore he should lead the communist party as their current leaders just don’t seem to want to drive the lastest million dollar cars I don’t think I have ever seen anything quite as ridiculous and stupid as all these Tripartite idiots with all their gansters trying to lead their “people” into the promised land hahahaha. Monsters ball indeed.
Traps, how about asking the Tri Alliance to debate the pressing issues; unemployment, Aids, education, crime, health etc etc instead of out booing each other about who is more capitalist than the other.
After being a small cog in the process of reintroducing some of my exiled countrymen into the mainstream of SA Corporate- and “ex-parastatal” life during the early ’90s, I now find myself hearing echos of words spoken by well-meaning returnees, as to how SA Society would be “normalised” to the benefit of the previously opressed. 1 Evening in particular was spent debating the viability of using the SADF as a kind of Civil Defense force, whilst also participating in RDP projects, in order to expedite these. Now it seems that so many of these wide-eyed excitants have been sidelined once by the Propagandists who get very little done other than their face and rethoric in the media just as it was in the days of Verwoerd, Vorster and Botha’s Apartheid. It’s easy to talk big when your bills are paid and you have all the niceties of Western-style Capitalism at your fingertips. All in all there’s a little South African word that seems to sum it all up for me…Eish.
I just agree with everything Douglas Mthukwane says - the oldest truth in the world - as you sow you reap - unfortunately the current ANC leadership is going to have to deal with a huge backlash from all sides and the sad thing is that “when the elephants fight it is the grass that suffers”. May God help us all!
By the time this(usual) drama is over it will be election time and everyone in the alliance will kiss and make up just to make sure the ruling party stays in power. And then more of this to keep the politicians busy while they acquire more wealth for themselves.
“…people who happen to have access to internet by virtue of apartheid makes you popular by virtue of the digital divide…”
If Madoda had internet in 1992/93 or whether he got it last week, it obviously wasn’t a matter of apartheid denying it to anyone.
Furthermore, how many individuals had internet in 1992? You talk of progressive companies having it. Since when are employees allowed free access to the internet at work? Both you and Madoda should have been working not trawling the net for ephemera.
OK, so you got it at home for your kids, and they are “successful”, whatever “success” means to you or them. I know many black children who have grown up to be successful in their own right who definitely had no access to internet. It may be a very useful tool for a student or learner, but one needs a lot more than facts to be educated.
Incidentally, I’m 64 next month. Perhaps my memory is going, but I know where Madoda was coming from with his remark about apartheid denying certain people access to the internet. Don’t be so damned pedantic.
All comments must be approved by our editors, click here to read the editorial guidelines for comments. Please allow some time for our editors to approve your comment after posting.
African National Congress secretary-general Gwede Mantashe in a report in The Star newspaper on Friday called upon newspaper editors to join the debat...
The African National Congress Youth League in the Eastern Cape confirmed yesterday that it would be convening a congress in the province despite there...
One of the most fascinating aspects of the Brett Kebble murder trial in the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg is the fact that the accused, Gle...
Just when African National Congress Youth League President Julius Malema believed he had an iron grip on the Limpopo province following the banishing ...
The undertaking by Justice Minister Jeff Radebe, in his address to the SA National Editors' Forum in Johannesburg on Saturday night, that the governme...
Loading ...
I don’t think I have ever seen anything quite as ridiculous and stupid as all these Tripartite idiots with all their gansters trying to lead their “people” into the promised land hahahaha. Monsters ball indeed.
@Traps
I will criticize you for the 1st time, my brother. Julius should not have been given the platform; the SACP had a right to deny him. The manner in which they did it, will not be a joke in a few months’ time. Mark my words.
Julius has no manners and he does not have the word ‘limit’ in his vocabulary and in his thought processes. The events of yesterday will prove extremely detrimental to the tripartite alliance and general civility for months to come.
Traps, nominating Gwede for president is downright stupid. He did not behave like a grown up person yesterday.
Jeremy Cronin did NOT behave like a grown up when he made the bling-bling comments to Julius. Julius was just his old self with the White Messiah comments. Not very admirable. For Gwede to wade in there like a cowboy in a bad mood, it will unleash a serious run of bad blood for months to come.
The politics of this country will not progress beyond this level as long as we feed the beast called Malema.
(Report abuse)