If Julius Malema learned a few lessons yesterday it was that neither Gwede Mantashe nor Blade Nzimande will put up with his fiery rhetoric and neither are the people to start with when he’s trying to make a name for himself.
Indeed the ANC Youth League president, constantly fed a diet of “boys will be boys” whenever senior members of the ANC complain about coming under attack from him, must have started to believe that he was untouchable.
At least until yesterday.
As the “leading” proponent of nationalisation — or that is what he would have the populous believe — he would probably have been expecting a rousing reception as he arrived at the SA Communist Party’s special conference. The small matter of his attack on SACP deputy general-secretary Jeremy Cronin surely forgotten by now.
But it wasn’t to be as Malema found himself being heckled and booed by the delegates who seemed somewhat impervious to his charms.
Accordingly Malema decided to flex his muscles and publicly slated ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe’s lack of leadership in not dealing with this nuisance. He also demanded the opportunity to address the conference.
Mantashe then acting in his capacity as SACP national chairperson rather than ANC general-secretary duly refused the request.
Malema together with Tony Yengeni and Billy Masetlha, both of whom had received more of the same from delegates, then left the conference.
Enter Blade Nzimande :
Where the SACP general-secretary had been scathing on those — including the media, who had questioned — his dual roles, now he was outright belligerent. He went right for the throat of Malema and the ANCYL.
He slammed their approach to nationalisation as opportunistic and called them a “faction of parasites who use their political power and connections for private gain”.
In no uncertain terms he called their attempt to use the “historical documents and position of our movement” as the machinery to further their own self- interests.
- “The great majority of young militants who have flirted with this style of long nights of long knives in bottom-baring conferences, with symbolic coffins for rivals, are not beyond constructive engagement. Together, led by the ANC and its broad movement, let us ensure that the noble task of black emancipation is not captured by a faction of parasites who use and abuse their political connections for their own private accumulation.” (Times LIVE)
Of course all of this will infuriate Malema who was particularly annoyed about being called a mouthpiece for capitalists.
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“Malema, whose recent acquisitions include a Johannesburg north townhouse, a Range Rover SUV and a Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG, took offence when delegates attending the SACP congress at the Turfloop campus of the University of Limpopo in Mankweng booed him and called him a mouthpiece for capitalists.” (Sowetan)
Which leaves South Africans to ponder whether the great “tenderpreneur” — as Nzimande styled him — understands the enormous irony in acquiring the trappings of capitalism and then going spare when the SACP point it out.
One thing is for certain both Malema and the ANCYL now know that they had best reserve their broadsides for lesser targets. If they go after the SACP or YCL they’ll be getting as good as — if not better — than they dished out.
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