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.