Sunday Times

In Julius Malema SA gets a glimpse of a leader who destroys nations and tramples on people’s lives

- RANJENI MUNUSAMY

One of the saddest things I have witnessed is people facing their own mortality because they have no home. In August 2015, at the height of the Syrian refugee crisis, I was in the city of Izmir, on Turkey’s west coast.

It was after midnight and along the beachfront people were milling around, waiting for daybreak.

Most had no possession­s, apart from the clothes they wore, and no place to stay. Mothers sat on the ground, cradling their sleeping babies.

Many people were gazing out at the Aegean, hauntingly beautiful at night with twinkling lights in the distance across the bay.

The sea was their passage to a new life but also a source of great fear. It could swallow them like it had done with so many who had tried to make the journey they now faced.

The next day, many of them would try to travel across the sea to the Greek islands, from where they hoped to make their way to other parts of Europe.

The voyage was not guaranteed. Smugglers would arrive with dinghies and negotiate the fare, sometimes up to $1,000 (R13,800). Before fleeing from Syria, money had to be collected, mostly from relatives abroad.

Each boat carried about 40 people and had to traverse turbulent waters, avoiding the Turkish authoritie­s patrolling the coastline.

Many boats capsized. Some people were rescued, others perished. Some of those on the beach that night had attempted the voyage before. They had experience­d the anguish of falling into the icy waters and nearly drowning, and were still willing to try again.

What would prompt them to put themselves through this? The answers I got made my heart bleed.

The water was terrifying but the war was hell on earth. Missiles had ripped through their homes, killing their family members. What was left was not worth staying for. There was no place that was safe as the bombs fell indiscrimi­nately.

Young men said they were running away because they did not want to be drafted into the Syrian army. Their choice was to leave behind their loved ones and make the long, perilous journey, or stay and fight in a war they did not believe in.

I lived through and reported on the war in my home province, KwaZulu-Natal, so I know all about senseless violence.

But I had to question what kind of leaders would put their people through such hell.

Recently I have realised that I have taken many things for granted. The ability to do my job freely as a journalist is one of them. The right to safety is another.

A few months ago, the EFF unleashed an attack on the National Treasury. Over time this mutated from claims that officials were racist to allegation­s of corruption against, among others, former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene and, recently, public enterprise­s minister Pravin Gordhan.

When journalist­s like myself tried to tap into what was really going on, we were accused of being part of a racist mob protecting corrupt politician­s.

The situation escalated through the coalescing of the EFF and the pro-Zuma faction in the ANC. Both oppose the cleanup in stateowned enterprise­s and the South African Revenue Service.

The venom has now turned on the Zondo commission of inquiry into state capture.

Blogs and WhatsApp groups are used to heighten disinforma­tion and swing public sentiment against the commission, anticorrup­tion campaigner­s and journalist­s.

Gordhan has been accused of being too powerful and the de facto leader of the state. This is used to amplify anti-Indian sentiment.

There appears to be a deliberate effort to drown out and discredit the mainstream media, and create a direct flow of informatio­n from certain political leaders to the public.

This week, the EFF staged demonstrat­ions outside the building that houses Tiso Blackstar, the owners of this newspaper, and the Zondo commission.

The protests initially targeted Gordhan as he testified at the inquiry. But when EFF leader Julius Malema addressed the crowd on Tuesday, he also unleashed a torrent of insults against President Cyril Ramaphosa, deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo and the commission’s evidence leader, Paul Pretorius.

Several journalist­s were in the firing line. As Malema accused me of campaignin­g for Gordhan, the crowd demanded that I come out of my workplace.

I am not sure what would have happened had I acceded to their demand, as I have been labelled a witch, a Satanist, a snake and a dragon by EFF supporters, and threatened with rape and murder. Malema told his supporters they were at war.

“There will be casualties. There can even be a loss of life. If you are not ready for that, stand aside,” he said.

He said “enemies of revolution” should not be entertaine­d. “Where we meet the enemy, we must crush the enemy. On Facebook, Twitter, social media, be there, guard the revolution. When the enemy raises its ugly head, don’t hit the head, cut the head.”

Three years after my experience in Turkey, on my doorstep I got the answer as to what kind of leaders create hell.

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