Juju: Frothy on top, shrewd operator underneath

At times during Wednesday’s press conference, Julius Malema did not seem the most levelheaded leader when he announced that his Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) refused to enter into a coalition with anyone, ever.

The Democratic Alliance, he said, squinting impishly into the sun, is “the party of white racists”. The ANC “is a corrupt organisation, which subscribes to kleptocracy”.

His allegations that President Jacob Zuma took a bribe and that Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba spent stolen money could land him on the wrong side of a damages claim, should either choose to act.

But beneath the usual militant rhetoric and bluster lay steely resolve and cold calculation to play the long game — backed up by action that shows more maturity than the ANC showed this week.

The EFF would vote for DA mayors in major cities, Malema said, because it must. “We are not going to delay service delivery because of ideological differences.”

This week, top-ranking ANC leaders privately suggested that their party may be quite willing to disrupt municipal services with strikes to show up DA governments.

The EFF, Malema insisted, could not be bribed with positions, making reference to both municipal posts and ministerial appointments — the kind of jobs that nowflailing opposition parties have in the past accepted from the ANC.

Nor, he vowed, would his party accept power without a mandate to govern.

“The people must say: ‘You deserve it’,” said Malema. “And they must do that through voting for the EFF, through a popular mandate. What are the people voting for? Expropriation of land without compensation. They are voting for nationalisation. So if you don’t get the popular mandate, it means the people have rejected what you stand for and therefore you have to go and do more work to educate society. When you get into power through some arrangement, you will never work hard to popularise and educate your people about how your policies are going to benefit them.”

As if to help crystallise that sentiment into a 2019 EFF election campaign, a few kilometres away on the same day DA leader Mmusi Maimane smiled from the middle of the group of opposition parties that had just inked an unlikely coalition deal. —