South Africa's Malema felt the heat too

Populist South African leader Julius Malema (C) gestures as he addresses a crowd of 30,000 supporters who attended the launch of his Economic Freedom Front (EFF) Manifesto in Thembisa. Photo/AFP 

By Charles Omondi
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Johannesburg, Monday

Former ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema may have earned himself the ignominy of being the garrulous leader with an acid tongue, but he certainly has no monopoly of these traits.

In the run up to the May 7 South Africa General Election, Malema has also had to contend with a fair share of choicest and well-aimed broadsides that have gone to great lengths to demystify his invincibility image.

And the attacks have emanated from more sources than just the ANC, from which his exit was marked by an almost unprecedented acrimony.

To the Communist Party’s deputy secretary-general, Jeremy Cronin, Mr Malema and his Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) brigade were mere “loud-mouth demagogues and tenderpreneurs in red berets”.

Malema’s political overtures, observed Mr Cronin, were doomed to fail because the working class he was trying to appeal to was wise enough to see through his schemes.

Wondered Mr Conin: “They have never done an honest day’s work in their life, so where do they get their fancy cars, their fancy watches, their fancy shoes?”

TROUBLE WITH THE LAW

Malema, though projecting himself as the champion of the down-trodden, mostly black South Africans, easily passes for a member of rich black elite club.

He is only in his 30s and has been a career political firebrand. Many believe he took advantage of his privileged position in the ruling ANC to amass wealth in less than transparent ways.

Malema has since his fallout with ANC, been battling court charges relating to money laundering, corruption and tax evasion.

To Young Communist League general secretary Buti Manamela, Malema was desperate for power to escape his troubles with the law.

Mr Manamela added a new twist to the controversial leader’s power pursuits, saying Malema was “high on drugs” when he drafted his party election manifesto.

William Saunderson-Meyer, writing in the Saturday Citizen, described a Malema successful inroad in the South African political leadership as a veritable disaster for the rainbow nation.

NOT WIN HIM VOTES

“A double-figure EFF vote means not only less investment, internal and foreign, but capital outflows. It has the potential to trigger a downward spiral that would destroy South Africa as a democratic constitutional state,” said Saunderson-Meyer.

Alfred Mbatha, 32, sees nothing but a hypocrite in Malema. “I can’t help but notice Julius Malema’s utterances. How are we all equal when you live in a shack and another in 20 million Rand mansion?,” he said, referring to Malema’s palatial home in Johannesburg.

“The same Malema whose unfinished house was auctioned for R5 million. Talk about double standards and cheap politics, if you ask me

.”

But marketing analyst Chris Moerdyk, commends Malema for running the most colourful campaign, though it may not win him many votes.

Referring to Malema as the EFF commander in chief, Mr Moerdyk said the former ANC Youth League boss understood the “absolute fundamental of marketing communication”, which was based on the premise:

“It is not what I want to say, but what my customers want to hear.” Many can only wait with bated breath on what lies in store for enfant terrible Malema after the May 7 elections