Does South Africa need Julius Malema?

By Jan Radley

I was amused by the humour and irony in a recent Madam and Eve cartoon. The contention was that Malema is responsible for much of what is wrong in South Africa, a notion which was tested without success in the particular cartoon. One can only hope that the amount of publicity bestowed upon JuJu’s shiny (literally from head to foot) persona is not indicative of his share of influence in the country. His name pops up in almost every newspaper we lay our hands on. At least when people complain about South Africa these days they don’t only bore us with crime stats — Julius seems to have become a greater and more reviled threat than giants like HIV/Aids, dismal academic standards in our public schools, our chart-topping gini-coefficient and the like.

To be fair, in the eyes of the bewildered South African newsreader, Julius Malema does not simply represent a stray, lone voice. His increasingly rotund presence matches the mounting concerns the public has regarding our spiralling corruption, nepotism, cronyism and the systematic plundering of what is meant to be public opportunities through tenderpreneuring. He stomps on the prejudice button by perfecting the stereotype of the clever but uneducated, charismatic, unreasonable, corrupt, powerful, fearless and highly unpredictable African political leader. His capacity for buffoonery harks back to masters like the heartless Idi Amin and Muammar Gaddafi.

I recently listened to a late night radio program in which listeners were invited to phone in and to relate their experiences of the New South Africa in comparison to the Old. I was pained to hear how negative people are. During the time that I was tuned in, all of the callers save one were black, and only one person had good things to say. If we think back to the previous era’s pass-laws, discriminating Acts, violent riots, necklacing in the burning townships, brutal policing and the like, it is indisputable that the New South Africa is a much better place for black people to live in. Yet the callers on the radio show complained that they were not better off in the present time. For them, Malema embodies the selfish, empowered manipulator engulfed in illicit plush luxury, remembering the poor only in as far as he needs their continued support.

If these callers represent the moderate discontents among South Africa’s black majority, I have to wonder what is bubbling beneath the surface. It is notable that the North African revolutions we have seen in the last couple of months erupted in societies where there was no practical mechanism for broad public expression of opposition to the status quo. Since entire populations could only voice their frustration and displeasure in illegal ways, entire populations became violently anarchic. Granted there are many other compounding factors in these countries, but the common feature stands.

One of the more baffling positions that the ANC Youth League assumes — with Malema in the forefront — is the admiration for Mugabe’s pristine job of ridding the once-thriving Zimbabwe of colonial tyranny. Zimbabwe’s land reform is held up as an enviable example. Is it not flagrantly obvious to even the least capable thinker that South Africa is full of Zimbabweans (who generally do not really want to be here), but that Zimbabwe does not exactly have a problem keeping South Africans out of their country? There are reasons for this. Reasons like hunger; fear of a ruthless, predatory police; lack of opportunities and jobs; schools without teachers and the list goes on. Few will deny that there is urgent work to be done in South Africa regarding land and wealth distribution, but to point to Zimbabwe as an ideal seems more than just a little insane. Ask the Zimbabweans living among us.

Communities who deem themselves to be oppressed tend to be highly emotional, a trait vividly on display in demonstrations. A sense of oppression or injustice spawns anger and bitterness; emotions that need to be vented through emotional means.

Reasonable debate will not do. It seems that strong emotions need to be expressed emotionally and even physically — in South Africa anyway, if nowhere else. Isn’t this perhaps where Julius Malema has a place in South Africa? Does his loud mouth not give voice to the angry discontents, the ones still without decent amenities after nearly 20 years of ANC rule? (Having said this we do not, however, dismiss the power of his support base from the ambitious, politically-connected rising class of comrades eyeing white-held assets.)

Perhaps, if there is some sort of a primal scream in South Africa to “kill the boer”, those who harbour such angry, vengeful feelings will feel vindicated at Malema’s tirades without having to take up some perverted version of an armed struggle again. If Malema’s convictions truly reflect a significant portion of the population, in democratic terms, he deserves a place.

It remains a pity though that the rising tide of leadership in the Youth League opts to play on these negative emotions to the detriment of the country, and for their own political — and subsequently financial — expediency. Perhaps it is all that they are capable of. It takes a different calibre of leader to diffuse the anger, disappointment and frustration of a nation and turn these to positive ends.

Jan Radley works in community development in the Eastern Cape and is a freelance writer.