Show us who you really are, Malema

GOOD evening, Julius Malema. Going to war with Pravin Gordhan? Your words. Now one starts to wonder?

What is your real agenda? Do you want a country running on integrity, even-handedness, caring for the vulnerable people neglected in the past, or are you consumed by biased, unchecked hatred? Or is there more to it?

Yes, the economy is still firmly in the grip of white people. Yes, the masses of people of colour are mostly struggling to have a life. Yes, this must change if we want to be moral human beings.

But you going at Gordhan, who withstood state capture, with all your fiery rhetoric, makes us start to feel uneasy on your real stand on state capturers.

You lack balance, you lack logic, lack the methodical presentation of proof. I think you have a hidden agenda.

We had the past. Apartheid was disgusting, but we have also had a decade and more of political figures that should have had their suffering people’s best interests at heart and in the systematic reinventing of the economic structures.

But they didn’t. They had money, wealth and tenders at heart, Julius. You did not participate in that, I hope? You don’t want to participate in the continuation of that, I suppose?

Julius, it is time to stop yelling at straw figurations of dishonesty. It is time to stand tall, to walk tall, to become a balanced leader.

Otherwise you will also eventually become part of a very sad and simplistic history.

You will join the ranks of the malicious leaders of the past – both the distant and recent past.

Malema, you are walking a tightrope now. You can become a balanced leader and a reasonable pragmatist. That is the only way forward if you love people – of all colours. Don’t colour the others all into scheming hyenas. Most of them just want to have a normal life too. Or you can get hooked on simplicity and narcissism and short-term successes. And then, after that, the masses will start to despise you for losing their trust.

Who are you really, Julius Malema? My skin may be white, but my soul yearns for the systematic improvement of the lives of all South Africans. We are all humans and deserve to be respected as such.

Who are you really, Julius Malema? Who will you become? What is engrained in your being? You tell us. Then you show us. WIM VAN DER WALT

Bellville