The must-see man of SA’s politics
Investors view Malema’s populist tendencies with suspicion, writes Sibongakonke Shoba
WHEN Financial Times editor Lionel Barber arrived in South Africa on Monday, there were only two people he wanted to see — President Jacob Zuma and Julius Malema.
Such is the political phenomenon that is the Economic Freedom Fighters’ self-styled commander-in-chief that the editor of the prestigious London newspaper — who regularly travels to world capitals to meet heads of state and other prominent personalities — insisted on meeting him ahead of Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe and Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille.
The 33-year-old former ANC Youth League president, who formed the EFF after being ex- pelled from the ANC as a result of a falling-out with Zuma, is unlikely to emerge as the country’s new head of state come election day, May 7.
According to various opinion polls, Malema’s EFF will not even threaten the DA’s status as the official opposition.
Yet, what Barber and the representatives of international investors who travelled to an informal settlement in Alexandra township to meet Malema on Monday realise is that he is a force they will have to reckon with for a number of years to come.
In less than a year since establishing the EFF, his crew with their trademark red berets have become a common feature in townships and informal settlements, where unemployed youths frustrated at the pace of transformation have abandoned the ANC.
If anyone doubted Malema’s ability to pull crowds after his expulsion from the ANC, the EFF’s election manifesto launch rally at the Mahlareng Stadium in Tembisa two weeks ago would have extinguished such doubts.
Even his detractors admit that his superb oratorical skills often have crowds eating out of the palm of his hand.
Although he will not win the election, his significance in the upcoming polls is that he is likely to erode the ANC’s traditional electoral base, thus helping to reduce the ruling party’s majority in parliament.
Despite facing serious corruption and fraud charges, as well as owing the receiver of revenue about R16-million, he has successfully sold himself as the champion of the poor and those unhappy with the government’s service-delivery record.
The EFF’s promises of free education, doubling social grants and a minimum wage of R4 500 find resonance among those who feel excluded from the economic benefits of the post1994 democratic dispensation.
But the likes of Barber are also showing a keen interest in Malema because of fears that, through him, South Africa is experiencing the rise of a populist-leader phenomenon that ruined many economies in Latin America and post-inde- pendence Africa. The EFF manifesto and Malema’s track record in the ANC Youth League — where he promoted nationalisation of the economy as a panacea for society’s ills — justify such fears, especially in the eyes of foreign investors.
Malema’s history of populism is well documented and dates back to his formative years in politics.
As a 21-year-old president of the Congress of South African Students (Cosas), an ANCaligned high school pupils’ formation, he shot to national prominence by leading a chaotic march through the streets of Johannesburg’s CBD. City officials had refused to give Cosas permission to march, but Malema, who fashioned himself after his idol and former youth league firebrand and president Peter Mokaba, defied them.
When chaos broke out and many of the marchers looted shops and stole from street vendors, all Malema could say to his fellow Cosas leaders — who were looking at him for the next course of action — was: “Gape mathatha a borwa a thomile [the Joburg problems have started].”
But instead of the incident adversely affecting his political career, Malema was made ANC Youth League president six years later, replacing current Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula.
Under Malema, the youth league’s brand grew to one of the most important in South Africa’s political sphere. Its membership also grew.
But there was always mumbling of discontent and some of the league’s leaders accused him of ruling with an iron fist.
“He once confronted me and asked: ‘What are you wearing? Where is your yellow ANC T-shirt?’ ” a former youth league national executive member said this week.
Although Malema’s popularity cannot be disputed, it remains to be seen whether it will translate into significant votes on May 7.
What is clear is that the EFF will have a number of seats in the National Assembly and that its mostly young and argumentative leaders are going to make the house more vibrant with their combative style of politics.
But whether Malema will be leading their charge inside Parliament will depend on his legal battle with SARS about the taxman’s application to have him sequestrated.
If he wins and escapes the fraud and corruption charges he is facing, many more influential editors and foreign investors will be queuing to see him come the 2019 general election.