On the 16th of June in Midrand, Gauteng, Julius Malema was re-elected for a second three year term at the helm of the African National Congress Youth League in South Africa. His re-election was unopposed by the more than 5,000 delegates present. As Mondli Makhanya wrote in the Sunday Times: "Prepare for an extended and more riveting run of the Julius Malema show." And at just thirty years old, it certainly seems Malema won't be going anywhere any time soon.
Continuing Controversy
Malema, who famously once referred to DA opposition leader Helen Zille as a "cockroach", has often fallen foul of the current ANC government as a result of his notoriously wild political behaviour. Perhaps most tellingly, last year Malema paid a visit to Zimbabwe where he spent time with Robert Mugabe, angering ANC leaders by commending the Zimbabwean president's "courageous" land reform policies. Although Malema later retracted his statements, he had strongly undermined the ANC's stance with regards to Zimbabwe, where thousands of white farmers have been violently driven from or forced to flee their land during Mugabe's thirty-one year rule, the country's economy disintegrating in their wake. Malema was in Zimbabwe to study the effects of "nationalisation", an idea that he is keen to push forward in South Africa, including ANC ownership of South Africa's mines and a move towards the redistribution of white-owned farms to the country's black majority, without compensation for the previous owners.
At around the same time as his Zimbabwean visit, Malema was the centre of a media storm back home after famed Afrikaans white supremacist Eugene Terre'Blanche was brutally murdered at his farm in South Africa's North-West province by black workers. Reports surfaced suggesting that as many as 3,000 white farmers had been murdered in South Africa since 1994. Afrikaans group Afriforum took a list of the names of 1,600 murdered boer farmers to the ANC headquarters at Luthuli House. ANCYL members reputedly pushed Afriforum members away and threw the list on the ground. Meanwhile, Julius Malema, undeterred, continued to stir up the masses singing an apartheid-era protest song that contains the lyrics "shoot the boer". Combined with his on-going "nationalisation" ambitions, it seems no surprise that many white South African farmers fear for the future and have increasingly likened Malema to Mugabe.
Malema's own brand of widely criticized and highly controversial racial rhetoric has continued to dominate South African media coverage throughout 2011. In May, after lenghty court proceedings, it was decided that the "shoot the boer" song constituted "hate speech" and Malema, boisterous throughout, was banned from singing it. But on this occassion the ANC stood behind Malema, saying that the ruling had taken the words of the song out of context. The ANC's support aided Malema in creating a certain nostalgic solidarity amongst much of the black population as both Malema and the ANC refused to back down and continued to hark back to the days of "the struggle" in which the song had come into prominence. Despite his loss, Malema seemed to emerge from the case stronger and more determined than before.
Malema for President?
Despite their support during the "hate speech" trial, Malema remains frustrated by the ANC's lack of backing for his policies and angry at reprimands he has previously had to face. As his influence grows, he continues to try to remove himself and the league from the central ANC government and to challenge its senior members. With his confidence high after his re-election, Malema criticized the ANC's economic policies and their unwillingness to follow through with his proposed land reforms at the league's annual conference last week. He also called for younger leaders within the ANC, adding that "younger leadership is energetic and less conservative".
The ANC should surely be aware that much of Malema's support comes from an increasingly angry and disillusioned black South African youth, many of whom struggle to find work and live without basic services. Part of what they love about Malema is that he is not afraid to stand up to and question a government that has failed to deliver for them. But if the ANC can manage to get Malema back on side, at least superficially, they will hope to be able to retain some order over his increasing number of fanatical supporters.
Whilst some senior ANC members continue to downplay Malema's influence, president Zuma's prioritisation of the ANCYL event over an official Youth Day rally commemorating the deaths of school children during riots in 1976 seemed to speak volumes. Having attended the ANCYL event first, and been made to wait longer than expected by Malema, Zuma arrived hours late in Soweto to an almost empty stadium. Most of the crowd had grown tired of waiting and gone home. Whatever Zuma had hoped to gain, the day was owned by Malema
It remains, however, unlikely that Malema will be running for president any time soon. He is still astutely aware of Zuma's popularity amongst loyal ANC members as well as the SA Communist Party and the SA National Civic Organization. And even if Zuma does not run for a second term next year, the most likely candidate to take over appears to be vice president Kgalema Motlanthe. Either way Malema will still be pushing hard to weaken Zuma's aforementioned leftist allies, and in doing so see his own close ally, former ANCYL leader and current sports minister Fikile Mbalula, elected as ANC secretary-general in place of the SA Communist Party's current national chairman, Gwede Mantashe. Secretary-general is the ANC's third most powerful post, a position responsible for much of the day-to-day running of the party and endowed with the power to deploy senior positions in goverrnment. With Mbalula installed in the position, Malema and his league would seem to be gradually infiltrating the senior ANC. Would this mean an eventual descent into the terrible fate that has befallen Zimbabwe? Only time will tell. And time is certainly on Malema's side.
Sources
Mondli Makhanya, "The ANC needs to pull the plug as the Juju jive goes into overdrive", Sunday Times, June 19th 2011
Sibusiso Ngalwa, "Malema sheathes his dagger in face of Zuma’s popularity", Sunday Times, June 19th 2011
Dominic Mahlangu and Anna Majavu, "ANC reels in Malema", The Times, June 21st 2011
City Press, "President Malema?", The Herald, 22nd June 2011
David Smith "White supremacist Eugene Terre’Blanche hacked to death after row with farmworkers", The Observer, 4th April 2010
Author Unknown, "Malema calls BBC journalist "bastard"", Sapa, 8th April 2010
Christopher Clark - Based in Cape Town, Christopher is an African History graduate specialising in travel reportage and African affairs
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