Julius Malema: Not another blog post.

I don’t really feel like writing about Julius Malema. The man is simply tiresome. I feel like writing another blog about him just further feeds his influence. Not that the South African media hasn’t already fed his love for the spotlight ad nauseum. It seems like whenever a thought even enters Malema’s head it’s fast-tracked to the front page of every newspaper in every household of the Republic. Nevertheless I am going to indulge him once more, because I feel like I’ve had an original thought. Cute hey?

Who is Julius Malema?

As far as senior ANC leadership is concerned Malema is still a relative nobody. Or is he (queue clichéd suspense music)? There were some whisperings (although I fear these were only in the ever-growing , uhuru- believing, paranoid middle class’s minds) that he would be appointed to a position in cabinet: this didn’t even come close to happening. Yet his almost direct line of access to the media gives him ability to be so much more.

The ANC leadership: strategy 101

I think that the current ANC leadership deserves more credit for its strategic ability than what the media and the public seem to give it. Remember: as easy as JZ is to criticise sometimes, his camp managed to out-manoeuvre Thabo Mbeki and co in the race for the presidency. This despite the numerous outstanding court cases against Zuma at the time and the considerable blemishes on his record. And out-politicking Thabo was no small feat. We musn’t forget that Thabo managed to similarly outmanoeuvre Mandela’s preferred successor, Cyril Rhamaposa, to rise to power in the first place. And Zuma and co’s strategic skill in outdoing Thabo and team is only one obvious example of the strategic mastery of the leaders running the ANC. Actually, it’s mind-boggling that so many people seem to be genuinely believe that the majority of people at the top of the ANC leadership are just plain stupid. To those of you who do really think that: imagine a world in which you weren’t so closed-minded and blinded by opposition propaganda (or whatever it is that gave you that idea) and assume for a moment that the ANC leadership know what they’re doing.

How does comrade Julius fit into the ANC’s game plan?

In Julius Malema the ANC has an efficient medium through which it can tell the working class exactly what it wants to hear (just like a boytjo on the prowl in Tiger). Through Malema, our population is constantly being reminded of what parts of the ANC are doing for their very many and real needs. Of course this doesn’t mean that their needs are actually going to be catered for – it’s not clear that it really matters that they are. What matters is that government can have some respite. After all they do face an uphill battle running the country. Service delivery, or particularly housing, healthcare, social security and education are prime examples of this. We live in a young democracy with a Constitution that is extremely demanding of the government. There is no group of leaders (not even South Park’s globally offensive ‘Super Best Friends’) anywhere in the world that wouldn’t struggle to meet what our people, our Constitution and our country’s history demand. This task was made even more difficult by Mbeki’s ‘head in the sand’ stance on HIV/AIDS.

Malema’s role is to redirect responsibility for the difficult burden of delivery away from the government... toward anyone else. The more feathers he ruffles along the way, the better job he is doing keeping up the facade. And the best part of it all? What is the cost to the image of the ANC? Not much. Supporters of Malema’s comments think more of the party because of his allegiance to it. Critics are appeased by the occasional, tamely-worded, public reprimanding that is handed down to Malema, and are reminded that Malema does not speak for the ANC leadership. Now I don’t know any of this for sure, of course. Maybe it’s a little conspiracy theory of my own. But I think it’s a fairly logical possibility made all the more striking for its absence in public comment on everything Malema-related. The ANC leadership are not stupid: they are not to be underestimated by their supporters or their opposition. Concluding that they’re ignorant because of Malema’s antics is overly simplistic and downright foolish.


An example of how I think we should engage with comrade Julius

Malema recently said the following to a rally of ZANU PF supporters in Zimbabwe:

"We want the mines. They have been exploiting our minerals for a long time. Now it's our turn to also enjoy from these minerals. They are so bright, they are colourful, we refer to them as white people, maybe their colour came as a result of exploiting our minerals and perhaps if some of us can get opportunities in these minerals we can develop some nice colour like them."

I read this: I laughed, I cried and then I did the futterwacken. I imagine common reactions to this comment are either laughter or fear, depending on how paranoid the reader is about the future of South Africa. The real question is whether there something we can and should take out of this ridiculous (racially offensive?) rhetoric? If I may take the liberty of translating Malema’s comments into less laughable, less emotive and offensive English:

"A small minority of South African’s are still living luxurious lives of privilege at the expense of the majority of the country. The mining sector is a very good example of how this is still allowed to happen. The mining sector should be nationalised so that more people can benefit from it economically."

This is still obviously a contestable statement. It is clear that a minority of the country has inherited a significant majority of the country’s resources. It is also true that this is predominantly a result of the unfair and arbitrary way in which apartheid laws discriminated against the majority. But it’s not clear that nationalising mines will do anything to remedy the problem. So we should expect opposition parties to respond to statements like this from the ruling party and any of its representatives by engaging substantively with the content of the statements. We ought to do as much ourselves. We should realise the very real desperation that stirs among the ever-more-disillusioned unemployed and homeless. Do we really expect people to believe in change if they don’t see it happening or helping them?

Deliberately dodging bullets

Whether or not Malema has crossed the freedom of expression line is another issue entirely. One which I am simply going to very subtly sidestep for the moment.

Look over there (behind you): it’s a flying whale wearing a purple leotard!

Conclusion: tact, rhetoric and poor writing style.

Suffice it to say that the comrade Malema clearly lacks tact. It may be that in Julius Malema the ANC leadership has found an indispensable tool. Or it may be that he is loose cannon that it will eventually backfire by angering even those he seeks to appease. Either way, I think that we should stop focusing his rhetoric and start listening to what he actually has to say. Rhetoric can be used to cover-up weak arguments, but it can also be used to express largely representative views in an understandable and appealing way. Rhetoric can also be used to finish off blogs that just won’t come to any sort of finite end. Not so?

Tim Fish Hodgson