Julius Malema is a product of the closed, crony society
This week, the media has been dominated by the racist and sexist ravings of ANC Youth League President, Julius Malema - a man who opens his mouth only to change feet.
It is tempting to dismiss Malema as a political lightweight; a harmless buffoon prone to delivering crass sound bites. On the surface, he is an irrelevant sideshow to an election that is really a contest between the DA's vision of an open, opportunity society for all and the ANC's closed, crony society for some.
But Malema is not an aberration or an accident. He exemplifies the kind of leader that closed, crony systems produce. He is a comrade's comrade. After the Zuma faction's victory at Polokwane, the dominoes fell in quick succession. Zuma's closest allies were propelled into all the key positions of power to reinforce each other in the inner cabal that inevitably leads to corruption and the criminalisation of the state. They abuse their power in order to extend their power for the purpose of self-enrichment. Closed, patronage systems are characterised by vicious internal battles for control and the spoils of power. Within a short time, the inner cabal's main purpose becomes clinging to power at any cost. The cabal drives out people of quality and ability, because these attributes threaten its self-preservation.
In this kind of organisation, the only people with prospects are those loyalists who can be relied upon to extend and entrench the cabal's control and follow its instructions. They elevate their own interests above the interests of the nation, by pretending they are the same.
That is why Julius Malema has climbed so far up the ANC ladder: he is prepared to do the bidding of Jacob Zuma and his cabal at all costs. He is Zuma's most vocal backer. He is prepared to "take up arms and kill for Zuma". He is prepared to attack the Constitution and the institutions whose independence it safeguards - such as the courts - when they are perceived to threaten Zuma's interests. The inner cabal must keep Zuma out of court in order to protect its own interests.
Zuma's interests are Malema's interests, because they both belong to a closed circle based on reinforcing mutual interests, which inevitably results in power abuse. As long as Malema promotes those interests, he will flourish in the ANC. Like one of Robert Mugabe's Green Bombers - the Zanu-PF controlled and supported youth militia who attack Mugabe's opponents and are rewarded with immunity from prosecution and with jobs in the military and police forces - Malema will survive and get stronger through power abuse.
He knows the rules of the game, and they spur him on. Most of us observe his daily ranting with amazement. But he knows what he is doing. Within the ANC's closed cabal, he is building his career.
On Saturday, Malema called me a "racist, colonialist and imperialist". He added that the role of the DA's Federal Chairperson, Joe Seremane - a struggle veteran who spent years on Robben Island so that Julius Malema and his generation could grow up in freedom - was to "smile at the madam every time". Later, in cowardly fashion, he declined to debate the spokesperson for the DA Youth, Khume Ramulifho, and branded him with the racially offensive epithet, "garden boy". When I pointed out that Malema was disrespecting his elder, Seremane, and behaving like an inkwenkwe - an immature boy who has yet to make the transition to adulthood - he played the sexism card, and claimed that I (as a woman) had no right to ‘‘speak on men's issues". He also made offensive and demeaning remarks about how I may have come to the conclusion that he was an inkwenkwe. His immaturity, self-indulgence and lack of judgement are plain for all to see. One need look no further. And they are the inevitable consequence of the system that spawned him.
At the same time that he uses the racist language of the past, Malema illegitimately tries to link the DA to apartheid, which the DA's predecessor parties opposed and fought. He forgets that the leaders of the apartheid party, the New National Party are now in the bosom of the ANC. He stated that "people like Zille represent... the apartheid system [and] colonisers". He does this because, like others in the ANC power elite, he must find scapegoats (usually "apartheid" or "colonialists" or "imperialists") to distract attention from their own failings. Bereft of ideas and ability, Malema must prey on racialised notions of victimhood and fear to cover up for what the ANC has failed to deliver after 15 years in power. Mugabe also mobilised his voters on this basis -- and the vast majority of them deeply regret it now.
It is only when Malema criticises fellow members of the ANC inner circle that he jeopardises his position in the circle. The ANC keeps quiet when he makes slanderous remarks about others, or when he attacks judges and threatens to kill people. It is only when Malema accuses Minister Naledi Pandor of having a "fake American accent" that the ANC reprimands him, because he has insulted one of their own.
The accession of someone like Malema would not be possible in an open, opportunity-driven system, where people are judged on their ability to use their opportunities with good judgement, determination, effort, intelligence and hard work.
But Malema actually symbolises something even more disturbing. He is a living example of the damage that closed, patronage systems do to everyone - even their supposed beneficiaries.
The great irony is that Julius Malema was born in 1981. In 1994, when the ANC came to power, he was 13 years old - the age at which most learners start high school. He received his secondary education under an ANC government. It has been the ANC government's role to equip Malema and his generation with the tools they need to exercise their freedom, take advantage of their opportunities, and follow their dreams.
The ANC has failed Julius Malema and his entire generation. While Julius was getting a "G" for woodwork in a disadvantaged school, the ANC leaders (for whom he is prepared to kill), were making sure that their own children escaped the consequences of the ANC's education policy. Almost all of these leaders send their own children to private schools (where they learnt the values of the open, opportunity society such as personal responsibility, discipline and hard work) while the ANC's mass support base continues to suffer the consequences of closed patronage politics, where these values count for nothing. Like Julius, the only hope they have is to rely on their political connections for a foothold on the ladder of life.
Poor Julius. He thinks he has reached the top rung of the ladder; he doesn't anticipate how soon it will be knocked out from under him. And he will have nothing to fall back on. He will hit the ground hard. His fall will either be the result of the ANC's internal wars between competing crony factions - or the consequence of voters using their power to hold people like Julius Malema to account, and voting for the DA. In the former scenario, Julius Malema will merely be replaced by a clone of himself, loyal to another leader.
In a democracy, people get the government they deserve. Our job in the DA is to inform every South African of the real choices they face in this election, and the consequences of their choice for the future of their children and grandchildren.
Their choice will mean the difference between success or failure for our country and for their children. Let us learn the lessons from Zimbabwe 's tragedy and opt for the open, opportunity society before it is too late.
This article by Helen Zille first appeared in SA Today, the weekly online newsletter of the leader of the Democratic Alliance, February 27 2009
