BBSA
Honorary Master
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2005
- Messages
- 30,193
- Reaction score
- 28,757
- Location
- People's Republic of South Africa
The booing of Julius Malema by the SA Communist Party and the attacks on him by Young Communist League leaders came as a surprise to many.
However, the truth is that the political death of Julius Malema has been coming for a while now. Opposition to and anger against the loud-mouthed young ANC leader, once endorsed by President Jacob Zuma, has been growing, and his real or perceived power has been diminishing steadily inside his own party.
For about four months now, the real ANC at Luthuli House has essentially treated Malema as a nutter. This is ably demonstrated by the party's decision to cut him out of any decision-making on the plight of the athlete Caster Semenya, and instead, appointed a task team to deal with the matter.
The team has essentially made a joke of Malema. Remember that Malema was a vocal and belligerent defender of the disgraced liar Leonard Chuene, the former head of Athletics South Africa. When the world called on Chuene to step down, Malema opined: "We believe that attempts to remove him as president for his genuine attempts to protect Caster Semenya are opportunistic and should be rejected."
He said this on October 1 this year. On November 16 the ANC had engineered the downfall of Chuene and newspapers were reporting that Ray Mali has arrived at the ASA offices in Houghton to take over as the new administrator.
Malema is still eating humble pie after calling Bobby Godsell a racist. On that matter he said: "He hates [Eskom chief executive Jacob] Maroga because Maroga is black, that is the only thing."
ANC leaders across the board said he was talking rubbish, with Gwede Mantashe saying: "We know that is far from the truth."
Worse still, the ANC government - after a moment of weakness - backed Godsell and went so far as to ask him to return to the leadership of the Eskom board. Malema's rantings were seen as no more than lunacy.
His clueless calls for nationalisation have been rubbished by everyone of any importance in the ANC, including the Left.
Mathews Phosa told investors in London in November: "Nationalisation of the mines is not the policy of the ANC, nor that of the ANC-led government."
Again on the Semenya issue, after Malema called for the boycott of Nedbank, he was called into a meeting with the bank and emerged sheepish, admitting that he had spoken ''without any facts at his disposal". His campaign flopped spectacularly.
Malema has misread the mood. The ANC has, for a long time, announced from the top of the mountain that it stands for a united, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa. The party frequently loses sight of these noble goals, but it as often finds a way to get back to them.
So when Malema calls people like Jeremy Cronin and Bobby Godsell racist, makes sexist remarks about women "enjoying being raped" and thinks he can ram through outdated policies such as nationalisation, he makes a lot of people inside the ANC very uncomfortable.
The Kader Asmals and Frene Ginwalas of the world are not alone in being appalled by him. Remember that even those who are still deep in the bosom of the Zuma administration, such as Zola Skweyiya, have voiced concern over Malema's behaviour.
What we saw in Polokwane last week is an expression of this frustration inside the tripartite alliance. After all, who in the ANC was not dismayed by Malema's attacks on Naledi Pandor, or even the attacks on IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi?
Who benefits from Malema's rantings? There is a loose formation of individual ANC leaders who have coalesced around a belief that they represent the "real" ANC. They are not communists, that's for sure. But that is about the total of their representivity of the real, middle-class ANC of the past.
In truth, these individuals only seek to nationalise mines to line their own pockets. They use race to put the fear of God into whites and enact, under a veneer of respectability and claims of "doing it for the masses", what Robert Mugabe has accomplished up north.
Malema is very much of this ilk: look at the expensive shirts, and cars, the beer boep.
All these are signs of a man on the gravy train.
The voices of opposition to this corrupt, thuggish ANC are growing. It now needs only Jacob Zuma to raise his voice. He cannot afford to keep quiet much longer while his organisation burns, due to the madness of one young man.
Can he speak? Will he speak? This is the challenge for Zuma. If he doesn't, his leadership will dissolve into thin air. He will well and truly be a non-leader long before his term comes up in 2012.
Link
However, the truth is that the political death of Julius Malema has been coming for a while now. Opposition to and anger against the loud-mouthed young ANC leader, once endorsed by President Jacob Zuma, has been growing, and his real or perceived power has been diminishing steadily inside his own party.
For about four months now, the real ANC at Luthuli House has essentially treated Malema as a nutter. This is ably demonstrated by the party's decision to cut him out of any decision-making on the plight of the athlete Caster Semenya, and instead, appointed a task team to deal with the matter.
The team has essentially made a joke of Malema. Remember that Malema was a vocal and belligerent defender of the disgraced liar Leonard Chuene, the former head of Athletics South Africa. When the world called on Chuene to step down, Malema opined: "We believe that attempts to remove him as president for his genuine attempts to protect Caster Semenya are opportunistic and should be rejected."
He said this on October 1 this year. On November 16 the ANC had engineered the downfall of Chuene and newspapers were reporting that Ray Mali has arrived at the ASA offices in Houghton to take over as the new administrator.
Malema is still eating humble pie after calling Bobby Godsell a racist. On that matter he said: "He hates [Eskom chief executive Jacob] Maroga because Maroga is black, that is the only thing."
ANC leaders across the board said he was talking rubbish, with Gwede Mantashe saying: "We know that is far from the truth."
Worse still, the ANC government - after a moment of weakness - backed Godsell and went so far as to ask him to return to the leadership of the Eskom board. Malema's rantings were seen as no more than lunacy.
His clueless calls for nationalisation have been rubbished by everyone of any importance in the ANC, including the Left.
Mathews Phosa told investors in London in November: "Nationalisation of the mines is not the policy of the ANC, nor that of the ANC-led government."
Again on the Semenya issue, after Malema called for the boycott of Nedbank, he was called into a meeting with the bank and emerged sheepish, admitting that he had spoken ''without any facts at his disposal". His campaign flopped spectacularly.
Malema has misread the mood. The ANC has, for a long time, announced from the top of the mountain that it stands for a united, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa. The party frequently loses sight of these noble goals, but it as often finds a way to get back to them.
So when Malema calls people like Jeremy Cronin and Bobby Godsell racist, makes sexist remarks about women "enjoying being raped" and thinks he can ram through outdated policies such as nationalisation, he makes a lot of people inside the ANC very uncomfortable.
The Kader Asmals and Frene Ginwalas of the world are not alone in being appalled by him. Remember that even those who are still deep in the bosom of the Zuma administration, such as Zola Skweyiya, have voiced concern over Malema's behaviour.
What we saw in Polokwane last week is an expression of this frustration inside the tripartite alliance. After all, who in the ANC was not dismayed by Malema's attacks on Naledi Pandor, or even the attacks on IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi?
Who benefits from Malema's rantings? There is a loose formation of individual ANC leaders who have coalesced around a belief that they represent the "real" ANC. They are not communists, that's for sure. But that is about the total of their representivity of the real, middle-class ANC of the past.
In truth, these individuals only seek to nationalise mines to line their own pockets. They use race to put the fear of God into whites and enact, under a veneer of respectability and claims of "doing it for the masses", what Robert Mugabe has accomplished up north.
Malema is very much of this ilk: look at the expensive shirts, and cars, the beer boep.
All these are signs of a man on the gravy train.
The voices of opposition to this corrupt, thuggish ANC are growing. It now needs only Jacob Zuma to raise his voice. He cannot afford to keep quiet much longer while his organisation burns, due to the madness of one young man.
Can he speak? Will he speak? This is the challenge for Zuma. If he doesn't, his leadership will dissolve into thin air. He will well and truly be a non-leader long before his term comes up in 2012.
Link
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