Malema turns to God

AS PRINCIPAL TELLS OF TRUANT JUJU WHO STRUGGLED TO COME TO SCHOOL

AFTER many dead ends trying to solicit comment in Seshego, Limpopo for someone to give us a portrait of expelled ANCYL leader Julius Malema as a teen, we meet Joyce Morongwa Lesibe, the retired principal of Malema’s former school, Mponegeng Primary in Zone 1.

Grey haired, bespectacled and hard of hearing, we find her immersed in the Bible. Lesibe is brutally honest. “He was a quiet, nice boy,” she says. “But it seems there was some sort of truancy in him. He couldn’t finish a week at school.

“He’d fight with his late mother when he was taken to school. One time he fought with her till his shirt buttons were torn off.

“It was a struggle in the morning for Malema to come to school.

“His reasons for not coming to school differed. But mostly it was that they didn’t give him bread at home or that his shirt was missing.

“The late Mrs Moloko was Malema’s Grade 1 teacher. I used to fondly call her Malema’s wife because she took care of him,” says the old lady, who turns 80 this year.

“He used to sing in the choir but I can’t remember how far he went.

“But he featured in the school’s extra-curriculum activities.

“Like I said, I know him as this quiet, respectful boy who never troubled anyone.

“To this day he doesn’t look me in the eye if we happen to meet. “He still has respect for me. “He comes from a family composed of girls and a brother. Three quarters of that family passed through these hands.

“Now when I see Malema, I’m surprised by the arrogance and I ask myself where he got it,” she says.

“Come to think of it, I never figured him at that age to be someone who could have leadership skills. “He didn’t show it at that time. “I could see the trait in other people but not in Malema. “With him I didn’t see anything.” At Mohlakaneng High School, Malema’s alma mater, the principal doesn’t want to be involved with what he called “politics”.

He will not let us speak to Malema’s former teachers.