The silly season would be incomplete without clowns. Fortunately, with Julius Malema now a permanent centre-stage feature of South African political life, there is always some buffoonish behaviour to snigger at.
But no matter how unintentionally hilarious the president of the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) seems to be, Malema is actually no laughing matter. Initially, Adolf Hitler, too, seemed a comic figure with his strutting behaviour and spittle-laden invective.
It is admittedly laughable that Malema wants the ANC to discipline its SA Communist Party (SACP) allies for not allowing him to address their congress and for booing him. What unexpected sensitivity from the man whose storm troopers just two years ago howled Terror Lekota from the podium of the Polokwane conference.
It is similarly risible that Malema so lacks a sense of irony that a man who boasted of being ready to kill for Jacob Zuma, now runs snivelling to the president, demanding that those nasty jeering boys be thrashed for denting his pride.
What isn’t laughable is that Zuma thinks Malema will one day make a brilliant president for this country. This is not just a fond uncle loyally predicting a fine future for his favourite nephew, despite everyone else thinking that the kid is something of a retard. Zuma really believes it.
It is a grave indictment of Zuma that Malema – who persistently talks of violence against his opponents, who sends threatening text messages to rivals like the SACP’s Jeremy Cronin, who believes that he is above the law as regards traffic fines – could be considered as being of presidential calibre.
Malema exhibits all the political finesse of the schoolyard bully. His modus operandi is to isolate his opponents from their support base by intimating that they corrupt, are dangerously ambitious, or are betraying the ANC’s true ideals.
He then taunts and threatens the target with the skill of a matador, whipping his cohorts into a hate-filled frenzy. The language is deliberately intemperate: enemies must be ‘liquidated’, those who differ from him are issuing a ‘declaration of war’ and must be ‘taught a lesson’, his supporters will ‘unleash’ their response.
There is some small upside to this. The most recent targets of Malema’s ire are not the opposition, but the ANC’s nominal allies.
The result is the curious transformation of the ANC into both government and opposition, forming a vibrant multiparty democracy all by itself. Indeed, the acrimonious attack by various factions within the party upon one another turns the official opposition into a sideshow. Who cares about Helen Zille’s measured critiques while Julius and Jeremy are spectacularly clawing at each other’s jugulars?
Like the National Party of old, Julius has identified the Reds as the real enemy, but this time the Reds are not under the bed but in it. And as any decent bedfellow will attest, being booed in bed doesn’t make for cosy co-habitation.
Compounding the injury is the Communist’s opposition to Malema and the ANCYL’s new pet project to nationalise the mines. Such a nationalisation is not a selfish quest for dosh by the aspirant young comrades but will of course be done on behalf of the struggling masses. If you doubt their resolve, note that Comrade Julius has already singlehandedly and rather noisily liberated a modest part of Sandton for the proletariat to party in.
With their penchant for designer labels and displaying their bare buttocks in public, Julius and the children of the revolution are clearly young bums in search of some serious butter. And as they cheerfully warn, they are ready to kill in order to get it. It would be a dangerous mistake not to take them at their word.
Hear! Hear! (sorry – VIVA!)
Unfortunately, you conveniently forget to mention the UNDERLYING CAUSE behind the Malema phenomenon and the rise of ANCYL militancy. THE single biggest factor is the continued opposition of the previously privileged toward transformation in spite of the generosity of the previously oppressed. The previously privileged, exemplified by the racist DA (NP-Lite) party is still stuck in its old apartheid era mindset – exemplified by the DA’s takeover and gentrification of the WC and their vehement opposition to AA.
Even though the similarity between apartheid and the Nazis is more appropriate, William Saunderson-Meyer instead, with his twisted logic sees no problem in comparing Malema to Hitler!!! Just as we saw with Jacob Zuma, some in the media together with the racist DA cannot simply criticize politicians but they have to belittle and dehumanize them. Zapiro’s portrayal of black politicians as drunks, rapists and bungling buffoons in his ZANews is another example of this. Sadly, this strategy against Malema is guaranteed to backfire again, however, this time with much wider consequences.
Tremendous! TREMENDOUS! Eleven out of ten,WSM!
Nice touch about the ‘skill of a matador’….JuJu the Zulu
wow. I didn’t realize that people still used the word retard. The last time I checked retard didn’t mean stupid. Better check out the word ignorant while you’re running for your dictionary.
“What isn’t laughable is that Zuma thinks Malema will one day make a brilliant president for this country. This is not just a fond uncle loyally predicting a fine future for his favourite nephew, despite everyone else thinking that the kid is something of a retard. Zuma really believes it.”
How do we know that President Zuma really meant what he said?
When he made that statement, Zuma was talking to Malema’s people in Malema’s backyard. The president has a reputation for running with the foxes and hunting with the hounds; he often gives the impression of being on the side of those he talks to.
If you’re right, and he really does believe that Malema is good presidential material — and actually uses his influence to help Malema get there — then this country is headed for deep s**t.
I have long ago come to the conclusion that Malema is a retard, and I am still astounded that the press and anyone else pays him any attention.
It appears asif the press loves him because he creates controversy, which sells newspapers, at the expense of everything and everyone else.
It is futile to engage an idiot in relevant, converation, and expect them to make sense.
Bravo Juli for trying your best to eradicate the influence of the communist in the anc.
@William
You have nailed it perfectly! Malema is an Idi Amin laying the groundwork for his takeover. He has no consistent political ‘philosophy’, no rational framework to support his ‘positions’. He is worse than a mere populist; he is an opportunist of the rankest sort.
I’m not sure that Zuma truly believes that Malema would make a ‘brilliant president’. I think that Zuma’s motives are more mixed than that. Zuma may be using Malema’s outbursts and bullying tactics as a contrast to his own seemingly ‘quiet’ moves to undermine the legal structure of the country. Zuma is self-serving as is Malema but Zuma uses ‘charm’ or mere bumbling where Malema uses invective and intimidation. Both are dangerous to SA.
Zuma may also fear Malema–or at least Malema’s ability to incite a mutiny against the ANC by the YL. Malema will one day attack Zuma as a counter-revolutionary. The question is who will stand against Malema then?
“…Julius has identified the Reds as the real enemy, but this time the Reds are not under the bed but in it. And as any decent bedfellow will attest, being booed in bed doesn’t make for cosy co-habitation.”
Hilarious imagery! Someone get Zapiro on this!
Whatever on wishes to believe, what ever Malema says is the view of the ANC. Most are fooled into believing that he is an ANC bad boy.
Considering the ANC record on Zim I feel that they use the Marxist tried and tested method of making known what they want,then gauging international opinion. If no hackels are raised them they will do as they please.
(joining the others in pasting a gold star on yer forehead)…
So true. Let us not – ever – forget that some (most?) of the worst and most deadly tinpot dictators (and other low-lifes) in history started their despicable careers while not being taken seriously by the general populace.
Nero… Napoleon… Hitler… Stalin… Idi Amin… Pol Pot…
I certainly wouldn’t find it appropriate to compare Mr Malema to Hitler. The latter, despite his noxious political beliefs, was an ascetic, living simply, a vegetarian teetotaller who frequently reprimanded his Gauleiters for their excesses and indulgences. He had no particular desire for personal wealth or spoils, as is clear when studying his history carefully. Hermann Goering might be a more apposite comparison – a ‘well rounded’ figure with an appetite for all the good things in life, from fine dress (Nero-like togas), make-up, lavish parties (spot the similarities) and French cognac and champagne, to art treasures from the Louvre and the Vatican, all displayed in the magnificent Carinhall. He also wasn’t terribly wedded to ideology for its own sake …’I joined the party because it was revolutionary, not for any ideological reasons’. Perhaps a more appropriate comparison.
Take him serious…Zuma and all the other cronies do. It’s the youth and they are calling the tune. The greedy ANC are scared of them. It’s clear
“THE single biggest factor … behind the Malema phenomenon … is the continued opposition of the previously privileged” – Dave Harris
Odd that Jeremy Cronin should think that it was “bling” and others (blacks in the ANC) also think it’s lust for power. “These tensions are based on bourgeoisie interests and people who want positions. …” said [Billy] Masetlha. [http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/article238166.ece]
Did being nurtured by Winnie, she of the multi-million personal gold jewellery collection for herself and “necklaces” and “matches liberation” for others (blacks)who opposed her, not contribute in any way?
Just asking.
Great stuff. And true. Malema and his brigade of sycophantic buffoons are the Boswell Wilkie circus of politics. I do wonder if Zuma meant it though, likeable as he is, he seems weak and willing to say whatever he think will please.
Is it just me or have we seen the calibre of political leaders deteriorate rapidly since Madibe…just like the standard of education in this country…the bar is being lowered at an alarming rate to accommodate the likes of President Jacob Zuma (who apparently has a charming personality (just what a country needs from its leader to get the job done) and is cadress. Goodness knows what standards this country will have have achieved when Julius Malema is one day heralded as President of South Africa. Wow! haven’t we would have come such along way in such a short period of time…Viva! Really?
Rory and Marvin Caldwell-Barr raise an important point, as to whether Zuma truly rates Malema. I based my assertion on the fact that a foreign correspondent I know and whose opinion I value, interviewed Zuma a few months back and was left in no doubt that this is the case. Zuma articulated his belief that Malema will ‘grow out’ of his idiocies and become, in his words, a ‘great leader’.
Malema is no Hitler…he is more like a beer bottle…empty from the neck up
Spot on Mark Robertson
You can complain, but an ignorant and uneducated electorate (with their cultural back broken by the apartheid regime), who generally have no idea of the functioning of a constitutional democracy, fall easy victim to the bangs and whistles of the ANC propaganda machine – so it’s easy for morons to stay in power, and it doesn’t matter if they are corrupt or cynical, because shouting and screaming is more effective than logic and rational thought – an uneducated public is a godsend to morons at the top, and it’ll stay that way forever.