Julius the 6% leader is a fascist. So what?

Help, I’m in danger of becoming the only usual suspect not to denounce Julius Malema and his EFF as fascists. Are they really? I haven’t a clue, but a string of recent columns agree they are. Tim Cohen wrote it. Gareth van Onselen wrote it. Adam Habib wrote it. Justice Malala has just written it. Beware, they warn, the EFF is a dictatorship in the making. Malema will soon require white men to wear their underpants on the outside.

Let’s not run away from it. Julius may be a fascist. Or totalitarian. Or an autocrat. Pass the dictionary. Fascism, says one, is “a form of radical authoritarian nationalism, characterised by a desire for dictatorial powers, forcible suppression of opposition and control of industry and commerce”.

You could easily insert Julius in there. But that definition also describes half of white South African people who voted for the National Party government for 40 years. Apartheid and the Afrikaner nationalist order was fascist in its heart. Lots of whites (and more than a handful of blacks) think life was better back then.

I grew up in a fascist SA and worked for a long time in Spain, which was run by a fascist government (also) for 40 years. I got there a decade after Francisco Franco had died and Spaniards were still complaining about how democracy was worse than fascist rule. People are the same everywhere. They’re sentimental. The point about calling Malema a fascist is that once you have, you have to answer the question “So What?” He is the embodiment of a politics and a leader we are already very familiar with in SA.

So what? The ANC was always going to fragment. The EFF is the left split but we allow Malema to appear much bigger than he is. The EFF is a 6% party. Malema predicted 18% at the local elections in 2016 and got to 8%, less than 100,000 new votes after all his antics and with Jacob Zuma as his juicy target. Now he’s projecting 12% in 2019. That’s still well over 1-million new voters he needs. Where will they come from? Not from the DA. And with Zuma gone, not from the ANC. Malema will have to register a whole generation of new voters.

Anyway, he doesn’t really care about being called a fascist. It’s the attention he likes. A racially transfixed narcissist with a thousand thoughts and few ideas, Julius is capable of saying literally anything. Interviewed at the 2017 Daily Maverick Gathering, I heard him argue for both the nationalisation of all commercial banks and the creation of a new state bank in the same breath.

And, like all bullies, the studio you can’t touch Julius on is how important he is. I know this because I happened to form part of his first press conference of 2018, on February 5.

Ostensibly it was to announce initiatives in public health. He droned on about how Aaron Motsoaledi, who he naturally loved, was coresponsible for the Life Esidimeni deaths and how, yes, public health under apartheid was better than it is now.

By around 27 minutes he’d gotten to how Zuma wasn’t scared of being fired and how the media should ignore “this white exaggeration about [then still deputy president Cyril] Ramaphosa. Ramaphosa is exaggerated, eh ... Peter Bruce, Peter Bruce is the new Jimmy Manyi, Peter Bruce plays the same role Jimmy Manyi played on Zuma and the Guptas. Peter Bruce who claims to be a credible journalist sings praises permanently for Cyril Ramaphosa as if Ramaphosa comes from a Lucky Packet.

“Ramaphosa is not from a Lucky Packet. Ramaphosa has been a part of this mess we’re experiencing in SA. Ramaphosa has never lifted his finger against corruption and the rot in this country. Where was Peter Bruce? Vonyo vonyo [translation: blah blah] EFF will be irrelevant vonyo vonyo. EFF! How can we be told by a whitey like Peter Bruce that the EFF will be irrelevant?

“Peter Bruce was one of the same people who said the EFF won’t get 2% when it was formed. EFF irrelevant? I don’t think you know who you are dealing with here. Irrelevant! This EFF is at the centre of influencing every policy, every conduct in SA. And Ramaphosa is no threat at all! Ramaphosa is a product produced by the Oppenheimers, working with the Ruperts.”

One of Julius’s colleagues said he was merely “engaging” with my ideas. In fact, he had confused me with another columnist who had called him irrelevant but the charge clearly brought down the red mist. Fascists almost always miscalculate over the long term so I’m going to wait to see how Malema moves over the coming year. The fact is, Ramaphosa is indeed a threat to the EFF. 12% next year, Julius? Vonyo vonyo...

A RACIALLY TRANSFIXED NARCISSIST WITH A THOUSAND THOUGHTS AND FEW IDEAS, JULIUS IS CAPABLE OF SAYING LITERALLY ANYTHING