Malema has made it quite clear: he is South Africa's Mugabe
Every time Julius Malema opens his mouth, he does damage to our prospects of attracting foreign investment, developing our economy, and addressing inequality and poverty.
He needs to be told to keep quiet, because he's costing us money and jobs.
Anyone who may have had any sympathy for Malema in the past needs to read his comments today very carefully. Because what he is effectively saying to the South African people is: ‘I want to ruin any hope this country has of addressing poverty and building a prosperous democratic nation for all.' He is saying: ‘Like Mugabe, I want all the power, and I want you to sacrifice your own livelihoods to give me that power.'
His praise for ZANU-PF land invasions, his assault on the Movement for Democratic Change, his assault on our own Constitution and the fact that he threw a journalist out of his press conference for asking perfectly legitimate questions, demonstrates with painstaking clarity that he shares the same deeply flawed and manifestly dangerous characteristics as Robert Mugabe.
For Malema to advertise to the world that his agenda is the same as Mugabe's ought to tell South Africans everything they need to know about him, the ANC Youth League, and the ANC. Any notion that Mugabe has done anything other than systematically ruin Zimbabwe's economy, and throw thousands upon thousands of his countrymen into poverty, would be simply insane. Yet the ANC puts up with Malema, backtrack every time there is any hint that he might be censured, and seem content with him portraying the ANC's vision for South Africa as one guided by a tyrannical dictator.
Malema's hysterical, conspiracy theory-laden attack on the BBC is painfully reminiscent of the frequent claims by Mugabe that he is the victim of ‘malicious propaganda by external forces'. His actions, in throwing the journalist out of the press conference, are no different to Mugabe's censorship of the press in Zimbabwe, and his banning of outlets like the BBC from reporting there. Those actions, together with his claims that the Zimbabwean land reform model needs to be followed, show Malema is determined to become a despotic dictator, and ordinary South Africans must take an unequivocal stand now, and not let that happen.
There is one final point worth making, and it is both significant and alarming: in undertaking a visit to Mugabe, in being embraced by him, in championing his policies and behaviour and in returning to South Africa to do the same, it is now perfectly clear that Julius Malema has been given free rein to operate in a political vacuum. He can do as he wants, when he wants and no one in the ANC has the courage or presence to oppose him. It is an indictment of the ruling party, that rampant demagoguery has become a substitute for democratic principles and practice, and that a party once defined by great leadership is now forced to watch as a militant, arrogant and undemocratic youth splash about in the shallow end of the pool.
Statement issued by Mpowele Swathe, MP, Democratic Alliance shadow minister of rural development, April 8 2010
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