The City Press report, revealing that an embarrassed ANC Youth League president Julius Malema sent a threatening SMS to SA Communist Party (SACP) deputy general secretary Jeremy Cronin following his somewhat less-than-glorious appearance at the SACP conference, clearly demonstrates that post-Polokwane the strongmen are flexing their muscles and woe betide anyone that gets in the way.
The text was allegedly along the following lines: “If you thought you have taught me a lesson, wait until you see what is coming your direction.”
This coming after the parties concerned had purportedly smoked the peace pipe.
The fact is that there is a fault line running through the tripartite alliance right now which is balancing on the nationalism versus socialism plate. Every time an issue falls to be decided which touches on that plate an earthquake measuring at least 7 on the Richter scale erupts.
Malema is South Africa’s leading exponent on socialism save that he lives the life of a capitalist. The SACP conference is made up of many political philosophers, probably more than any other party or grouping. It’s been the nature of the beast since the turn of the 20th century. Accordingly they can spot a closet capitalist from a thousand feet.
Enter Malema king of the headlines and specifically those surrounding nationalisation — in truth a SACP not ANC policy — and you have thrown a red rag in front of a conference of bulls. They snorted then charged this usurper to leave the building.
Exit Malema loaded to the gills with venom following his vilification by the masses.
Somebody was going to get it.
As we have seen previously it is not too clever to try and tackle Blade and Gwede so peace pipe be damned why not let dear old Jeremy have both barrels?
Amusing as many of us find these incidents it is time for the tripartite alliance to come to terms with the fact that they are going to have to somehow bridge the ideological divide that separates them. Instead of saying we will just leave members to decide their policies on their own, actually formulate a plan that covers the expectations of the individual members of the alliance.
You can’t keep blaming the media for pointing out what is becoming patently obvious — the rift is becoming wider and angrier.
If left to their own devices and with some of the personalities we have around, there is going to be an earthquake the likes of which will make Zuma versus Mbeki seem mild and which will occasion a tsunami that blows the alliance to the four corners of the universe.
And you can’t text from there because apparently you battle to get a signal.
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37 Responses to “Malema to Cronin: U R in trouble luv Juju”
Well a divorce is in the making. I believe that will be the start of a civil war.Butis from all parties check this out, you are going to kill yourselves than see a better South Africa.Greed as taken over morality.Status has taken over humanity.
God knows who has taken over South Africa.Swing low sweet Mandela come back to take us to the path of the Rainbow Nation. We are lost Mandela we are heading to the gates of hell.Swing low sweet Mandela coming to take us to the Rainbow Nation.
Thomas C Kantha on December 14th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
In the meantime Malema provides the nation with some side-splittingly funny low farce on a daily — almost hourly — basis. Funnier even than those old Carry On flicks from the 60s.
Good heavens! This alliance is about to implode. Perhaps that is why there is so much chaos. Malema is the master of his own destruction and the ‘masses’ are beginning to turn against him-slowly but certainly.
But why are you omitting to say that the communists/socialists or whatever they call themselves if they ain’t got their hands in the cooky jar, are living a capitalist life?! but i suppose the reason they have the ability to smell a capitalist from afar is essentially because they’re themselves living capitalist life. I don’t see much different between Malima and them, really.
Quite frankly, it’s high time the Alliance split and the SACP and COSATU stood at the polls for election. It is madness to have the SACP in power when they have not been voted for and they currently have more power than they deserve.
And not just a split with the SACP but with COSATU as well - this would be excellent for RSA. Some kind of political balance is VITAL just as economic balance and a more equitable spread of wealth is VITAL. If we don’t get both pretty soon, RSA may just fall over. Addiction to material wealth (read greed) is just as destructive as the addiction to power that comes with too much political influence. The ANC just wields too much political power which is extremely corruptive and counter-productive - just as greed and avarice are for those who just cannot seem get enough stuff or just cannot let go of some of the vast empires they have managed to acquire - often under rather dubious conditions. Balance, balance and more balance is what RSA needs badly.
Phillippa..perhaps the first time I have agreed fully with what you have said. Interesting !!…as some factions grow further and further apart..others perhaps move closer together !? We live in interesting times !
Malema - a damn good laugh and some good humour, for sure…but not so sure about the “clever comedian part”. I’m just chuckling now..just how the “Spitting Image”..would have protrayed him..”Storming out of the SACP Conference hall”..having a good Whaaaah..and shouting at everyone and saying , “I am going to tell Papa Zuma… Whaaaaaa !!”.Shit that would have been a good laugh !! Sorry, got a bit side tracked from the main article…just couldnt help thinking that.
I could never understand how communists and liberals form an alliance. Yes it was justifiable in the days of the struggle. Now it’s just anachronistic and contradictory. How do two organisations on opposite sides of the political spectrum become allies? SACP fight your own battles, go it alone in the next elections. You may not be confident of the support you will receive but I can assure you, many people are gatvol with the ANC. COPE is barely coping. The DA is just reactionary and everybody else is only in parliament for the salaries and the perks. It’s pointless claiming to be communist yet in practice do the exact opposite. Your leaders live in posh houses and have the world’s best cars. Mazibuko Jwara once said it, that those who are now in government, i.e. Blade and Cronin, are betraying the spirit of the party and are there more for their own personal advancement rather than that of the movement. Ditch those guys and the ANC. I for one would definitely vote for you guys if you go it alone in 2014. Hey, 2011 is just around the corner. Why don’t you start by testing your appeal to the masses in the local government elections? I’m almost certain you’ll wipe the floor with COPE. While the DA may give you a run for your money, you’ll still dent the ANCs majority. Go for it REDS!!
@Phillipa Lipinski - It’s interesting that you find Malema more threatening to your future than the communist party. Or is it just irrational hatred for Malema, by the way you had the same anti Zuma obsession. Don’t worry your anti Malema will come to pass as it happened with Zuma. I have a sneaking suspicion though that your support for the communist party against Malema has more to do with Jeremy Cronin than any principle. Any African person who dares to take on a white person must be wrong and irrational.
I have said this before and would like to reiterate it. It is too simplistic to see the current tensions in the ANC as being informed by different ideologies. From what I have seen, the fight is really about positions and the resources that come with this within the context of South Africa’s very elaborate patronage system. Yes, the much talked about ‘National Democratic Revolution’ has been replaced, post 1994, by what many, aptly, refer to as ‘The National Tender Revolution.’ In recent years, this new ‘struggle’ has intensified, and it becomes very ideal by those involved in it to project it as a dispute between ‘communists’ and ‘capitalists’ within the tripartite alliance. I doubt if there is much, ideologically, that separates a member of the SACP and a member of the ANC.
Sipho please get over your persecution and / or victim complex which translates into branding as racist any white person with a negative response to bad bahaviour or appalling rhetoric on the part of any black person. It really is tiresome and counterproductive - not every white person is racist Sipho - not even covertly so.
This whole thing is just so out of hand. I think you have to blame Malema for much of it because of his apparent tendency to seek a massive amount of media exposure for his actions and statements…
Talking of which, did anyone else notice that Malema appeared to have demanded a press conference right after this event. This person whose organisation used to frequently say things like ‘I don’t have to talk to you because unlike (insert any vilified person/organisation), we don’t make war through the media’. Interesting and a bit of an oversight for no one to have dissected that.
I see Phillipa speaking for the masses again…ag shame, them being told what to think by Mme Europe… Personally I’ll wait for the next ANCYL elections to hear what it is the ‘masses’ (at least those who are YL members) actually really want. It’s going to be interesting in many sense of the word.
How sad! What a dreary dark day for SA, nooottttt!
Lets all rejoice as the alliance fight themselves to nothing.
There is a high road and a low road.
Low road - The alliance/government is messing things up so badly anyway that they will almost certainly get booted right out in the next municipal and national elections. And thsi is borne out by every by-election. The liberation mantle is no longer there or theirs.
High road - the alliance implodes.
Note my choice of low and high roads. I have taken choices for SA not the powerhungry, money grabbing cadres in the alliance.
@Thomas. I loved your linking with Swing Low Sweet Chariot. But it needs a version sung very slow very sadly and this cannot be incorporated into a blog.
Personally, I am beginning to believe that Julius is a stooge for the DA game theory planners.
He is their closet agent-provocateur and has probably been conditioned like some sort of Manchurian Candidate who has been brainwashed by Western distractions like Land Rovers, Gucci belts, cell phones and Johnny Walker Black Label.
Game theory war-planners rely on models to anticipate and shape outcomes with staged provocations. For the agent provocateur, the reactions to a provocation—as well as the reactions to those reactions—thereby become predictable within an acceptable range of probabilities.
Some clever planner in the DA – and lets face it, they have a lot – worked this out after watching Julius’ lifestyle and impetuousness. It seems far fetched but, having regard to the effectiveness of Jule’s destructive mannerisms, it must be part of some great conspiracy to undermine the mighty Alliance.
It simply could not happen spontaneously. I mean, he got an F for woodwork.
Ring any bells? (Jim Harris, Free Market Foundation, 2002)
“A draft charter governing black empowerment in the mining industry was leaked to the media in July. It wanted 30% of existing mining operations in the hands of previously disadvantaged groups by 2012, and an immediate 51% of all new operations. Foreign equity dealers talked of creeping and galloping nationalisation, and investors fled from South African mining and gold stocks and stocks with exposure to SA. Anglo American shed 25% of its market value. High-level discussions between government and mining industry leaders later established a task team to hammer out a new charter, but many thought the damage done to investor confidence irreversible.
The ministers of minerals and energy, trade and industry, finance, and labour made a joint statement with mining executives that it was not, and never had been, government policy to nationalise the industry or any part of it. (Star 15.8)”
This letter to South Africa’s version of Pravda, The Star, of 20 August, 2002, by Anglo’s Michael Spicer who stated: “The facts of the impact
of the “draft charter” on the value of South African mining stocks are, contrary to your assertions, quite unambiguous……Not only did
Anglo lose some R35-billion in market capitalisation directly as a result of
the draft charter, but the savings held by the average South African through institutions (and 50% of these are historically disadvantaged
South Africans) lost an average of R2 900 in value”?
Can’t wait for the fun. They’re like a bunch of schoolkids. Best friends last week will now make new best friends.
The status quo can’t go on forever; things change; they are dynamic. And not all change is bad.
Remember that you are not a “Youth Leader” if you do not say “irresponsible” things. The ANC youth leaders all at one time made that “mistake” - Mandela way back in the 60’s when he called for an armed struggle, many people then thought it stupid and irresponsible, then more recently Tony Yengeni, Mabula and now Malema. That is why they are called the “Youth League” and kept in a seperate grouping - you can distance yourself from them when they are an embarrasment(make stupid statements) or use them when you need numbers(elections). I think to much is made of Malema, by the press, the opposition and public Do you remember that once there was a guy called Terrablanche - he bloomed while receiving attention, then dissappeared when ignored.
South African politics starts to confuse me now I don’t know where this leaders are directing us. A good leader should have vision about the future of his people e.g the legacy of Mandela, King Martin Luther and Julius Nyerere.
I can point it out now with total confidence that they are ran out of ideas.
Juju really is his own worse enemy. Does he not have an advisor? He really needs a PR makeover. Zuma must be tearing his hair out every time Jube-Jube opens his mouth or leaves his house. I agree, he must be working for the DA because its all too comical to be legit! What’s even funnier is that he takes himself so seriously. We love you JuJu!
Em…I rekon I’m gonna create dolly copies of every living stinky SA politician and stick in some tainted pins every day, That’s the best chance I have [as a whitey] of influencing poli-tics in this country…
@Rose Morrow writes “It really is tiresome and counterproductive - not every white person is racist Sipho - not even covertly so”
Rose you need to take a broader view of what racism is. You’re probably married to or dating a white person, and you think it is normal.Your choices in life are mostly influenced by your socialisation. When last did you use services of a black doctor, architect for an example? And yet you probably have used garden and domestic services from black people. You probably think this is normal. It’s not a pure coincidence that you felt the urge to defend Phillipa Lipinsky, it’s a knee jerk reaction for racial solidarity. Instead of addressing my question about the sudden support of the communist party especially from bloggers, you deviate and accuse me of saying all white people are racists.
@Perplexed: you may agree with me but I don’t agree with you. For one, I don’t thing that Malema is funny and none of the things he says are worth the paper they’re written on.
@Sipho: I couldn’t care less what Malema says to any of his comrades (and that includes Cronin). I am actually more enraged by the insensitive and callous comments he made about the woman who accused Zuma of rape than I am about the ones that are racist.
@Kit: Sometimes it seems you just want to say something against me-it doesn’t have to make sense. I see you are still angry about that “life-insurance” comment.
@Eligos: Thanks (I guess)!
Oh, and Sipho: Malema is especially threatening because he is a communist with a weakness for he trappings of capitalism.
Trust me I grew up in a communist country and I can tell you that the South African Communist Party is not communist at all.
“When last did you use services of a black doctor, architect for an example? And yet you probably have used garden and domestic services from black people. You probably think this is normal.” You think the above is racism??? Your assumptions around my personal life aside, you have a skewed idea of racism! I employ a black domestic-would you rather a white a white unskilled person or white architect and deprive her of the only job she is skilled at?? and deprive upwards of fifteen people who depend on her? Get real Sipho? I do not appreciate JUJU’s repulsive, uneducated, inflamatory rhetoric - often, I do not enjoy Blade Nzimande’s approach but he is often wise in his utterances - I do wonder at the very expensive car though! I often feel at one with Zweli Vavi of COSATU - I am not a communist or a trade unionist but I can respect and agree to some of their opinions and policies. For the most part, I support ANC policy - not the current leadership -whether you like it or not. It has naught to do with racism - I prefer going to my white male doctor of 30 years — I have a brother who is an architect - he is white and would do my plans for free - does that make me sexist and racist? I have less than five close friends - one is black - are you okay with that - or should they all be black for me to qualify under non racist?
@Sipho, the race of one’s partner is irrelevant. I know quite a few white people who have black lovers/spouses but are still racist.
I’m not racist. If you must know a few things about me: One: I’m Jewish (Strawberry-blond hair, green eyes). My mother is Russian, my father is Polish. I grew up mostly in Poland and came to SA when pappa got job in the Eastern Cape-in a rural hospital (as a physician). My husband is African (Dark, Xhosa-speaking, dark-brown eyes, gorgeous man). You can imagine what our children look like. Our doctor is a fine physician originally from Ghana. Yes, my daughter goes to a so-called white school simply because the only South African language I know is English and I can help her with homework. My youngest is 3 years old. I am not RACIST and this is the first and the last time I am making this statement. Nothing sickens me more than to hear people throwing this label at me simply because I criticise that idiot of colossal proportions, Julius Malema.
Oh Sipho! Why does one even bother with you!
If you follow Rose’s comments, you will see that, although they are sometimes different from mine, she always speaks from a position of principle (even if I sometimes disagree with her, I can say that) and has always supported transformation and spoken out against racism. Maybe you are new to this site. You have a lot to learn.
About Malema: He does make some valid points; especially about the fact that black people experience racism on a daily basis. the problem is that he is so full of hatred and most of what he says is inflammatory. He is also out of touch with ordinary (black)people who are languishing in poverty while he rides the gravy train and rolls around in his satin sheets in leafy Sandton. I have worked with many people in townships and I know the despondency, hopelessness and anger they feel at, especially, being unable to find employment. Malema exploits those sentiments for political gain without doing anything to change the dismal conditions under which so many black people live. How does pointing this out make me a racist?
The strange thing is that many white respondents on this site say that I have a guilt-complex and I’m out to paint whites off as baddies. Now, some blacks say that I’m racist! I guess all this means is that I stand for the truth and am not out to please anyone.
Sipho, you are a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
The examples you use to define racism are too broad and do not make allowance for freedom of association. And why should whites seek to use black professionals. Maybe black professionals should seek to get white business?
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Well a divorce is in the making. I believe that will be the start of a civil war.Butis from all parties check this out, you are going to kill yourselves than see a better South Africa.Greed as taken over morality.Status has taken over humanity.
God knows who has taken over South Africa.Swing low sweet Mandela come back to take us to the path of the Rainbow Nation. We are lost Mandela we are heading to the gates of hell.Swing low sweet Mandela coming to take us to the Rainbow Nation.
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