SOUTH AFRICA: THE RISE OF JULIUS MALEMA by BALA MUHAMMAD

It is not every day that ‘a mere civilian’ can cause the scrambling
of a country’s entire defence system and have the military put on
high alert, especially if that civilian is a disgraced former leader
of a youth wing of a political party. But that, interestingly, is
what has been unfolding in South Africa this week, as the
government of President Jacob Zuma this week ordered the South
African military to be on high alert as firebrand politician Julius
Malema, expelled president of the ruling African National
Congress (ANC) Youth League, addressed disgruntled soldiers in
Lenasia, near Johannesburg.
It was the first time since South Africa became a democracy in
1994 that the government issued such an order. Many
commentators have suggested that the military alert was an over-
reaction, and it only helped propel Malema beyond what many
think he is; a common rabble-rouser. In the event, scores of
journalists and even a satellite television truck were on hand to
give Malema coverage as he addressed the soldiers, who had
earlier been disciplined for indiscipline, to mobilise and save their
jobs. And the soldiers were not the first group to give Malema
this honour of guest speaker; mineworkers now look up to him
as their ‘leader’ and icon.
Julius Malema is only 31 (he was born 3 March 1981: for
example, he was only eight when Mandela was released from
prison in 1990), but he quickly rose to become the president of
the Youth League which, together with the Women’s branch of
the party under the influence of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela,
facilitated the famous Zuma coup against former President Thabo
Mbeki. Malema, according to Wikipedia and other sources,
occupies a notably controversial position in South African public
and political life, having risen to prominence with his support for
Zuma. Significantly, he has been described by both Zuma and
other South African politicians as the ‘future leader’ of South
Africa.
Malema’s rise was phenomenal. By the time he was 20 in 2001,
he was national president of the Congress of South African
Students (COSAS). He was elected president of the ANC Youth
League in April 2008, and re-elected unopposed for a second
term on 17 June 2011. At several public gatherings, Malema has
advocated nationalisation of mines, the mainstay of the South
African economy. He also advocates the return of white-held land
to blacks without compensation (a la Zimbabwe, which he
regularly visits) asking: ‘Why should we pay for our land?’ To
further articulate his views, Malema led a South African youth
delegation to Venezuela to study President Hugo Chavez’s
nationalisation programme in April 2010. However, Malema’s
views of South Africa’s mines are not shared by the country’s
large National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which is allied to the
ANC, and supports Zuma.
The person Malema is currently challenging, incumbent President
Zuma, was no less controversial. By all political standards, Zuma’s
rise to power was sophisticated, suave, unprecedented. This was
a man in disgrace too, with corruption and molestation charges
around his neck. Yet he was able, with dexterity and political
savvy, to shake off all those yokes and execute a coup against a
sitting president (Thabo Mbeki) who had sacked him as Deputy
President earlier. Zuma, with Malema’s help and that of others,
took over the ruling party and ultimately the presidency. Add to
all these, Zuma is a man with little formal schooling, though very
learned in the ‘school of the bush’, and in prison, and in life.
Malema also boasts of only a diploma, though he is presently
enrolled in university, studying for a BA.
So it should come as no surprise that it is becoming a South
African political dance for ‘disgraced’ politicians to execute coups
against incumbents. Malema was expelled from the ruling ANC
earlier this year for indiscipline. In all his addresses to striking
miners over the past few days, Malema thinly hides the object of
his ridicule, Zuma, whom he wants overthrown at the
forthcoming ANC convention in December. And he also rails
against the NUM leadership, and the mostly-white mines owners.
Reports a South African newspaper this week: “In a speech
punctuated by the cheers of thousands of miners and the blowing
of whistles and vuvuzelas, firebrand politician Julius Malema
called Tuesday for a national strike in all of South Africa’s mines
since police shot and killed 34 striking miners and wounded 78
on August 16 at Lonmin PLC’s platinum mine at Marikana.
Lonmin said in a statement Tuesday that only 3 percent of
workers had shown up. ‘There must be a national strike. They
have been stealing this gold from you. Now it is your turn. You
want your piece of gold. These people are making billions from
these mines,’ Malema said, leading the miners in chants of ‘Kill
the Boer,’ (Dubul’ iBhunu) a song from the anti-apartheid
struggle referring to white farmers” (and one of the reasons he
was expelled from the ANC).
In the mostly white-controlled South African media, Malema
today is the new target for the cartoonists (who have since begun
to apparently tire of lampooning and caricaturing President
Zuma). Malema gets much coverage, and criticism, for his
controversial statements. Cartoonists, says Wikipedia, wishing to
draw attention to his inexperience (and youthful over-
exuberance), frequently drew him dressed in nappies. Some
analysts depict him as an orator, with a broad appeal in the
young, poor, and disadvantaged black electorate. More recently,
as Malema’s public profile has grown, he has been described by
critics in the media as a ‘demagogue’. But Forbes Magazine
named him as one of the ‘Ten Youngest Power Men in Africa’ in
September 2011.
In an article dated 20 June 2011, not long after Malema was re-
elected ANC Youth Wing President, Barney Mthombothi, Editor of
South Africa’s Financial Mail, said: “[T]he other reason for the
Malema phenomenon is the vacuum, even the cowardice, at the
centre of power. That such a person can thrive is a sign of our
times. Malema is a consequence, not the cause, of our
dilemma…there’s…a huge army of disillusioned young people
who’ve been left behind or who feel that the new democracy is
not delivering fast enough. Malema’s demagoguery falls on fertile
ground. Society has failed them. Malema is their only hope. Their
penury is Malema’s prosperity.”
Another criticism is that Malema lives like the elite he often
criticises. When asked by a journalist why he wore such expensive
clothes, Malema waxed philosophical, asking rhetorically, “So you
want to see us in rags? No! We have to dress well. We need to
impress black youngsters and give them hope. No one gives hope
in tattered clothing.”
To his supporters – who call him Juju – he is God-sent, and an
answer to Zuma’s apparent failure to really address the yearnings
of the black majority. Malema’s constant singing of Dubul’ iBhunu
(Kill the Boer) is clearly reminiscent of his former leader Zuma’s
constant singing of the great anthem of the anti-apartheid
struggle, Khawuleth’ Umshini Wam (Bring Me My Machine Gun),
used by Umkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the ANC during
the struggle against apartheid.
Zuma would really need his political machine gun now.

#CONSENSUS 2015