If he is confirmed as the new ANC Youth League president, Julius Malema is likely to continue predecessor Fikile Mbalula’s tradition of pompous, reckless and fiery bombast.
The 27-year-old from Limpopo will be even more ”militant” than Mbalula. With the league still wielding massive political influence even though it is in decline, a lot rests on his shoulders.
While some former youth leaders say he is unlikely to arrest the decline in membership and might continue purging those who oppose him, his followers say he has the energy and fearlessness to confront both ANC and government leaders when they step out of line.
He once criticised former president Nelson Mandela for not attending the 2002 fraud trial of his former wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Malema said the absence of Mandela, as well as that of ANC leaders, fed presumptions of her guilt even before the court delivered judgement. ”Despite their differences, it is important that Madiba should be behind the mother of his children,” he said.
An admirer of Madikizela-Mandela, Malema served as president of the Congress of South African Students, of which the former first lady was designated honorary life president.
On one occasion in 2002, flanked by Madikizela-Mandela, he blasted ”irresponsible journalists” for asking the ”Mother of the Nation irrelevant questions”.
In 2002 Malema was banned from Gauteng schools after he led a violent march through the Johannesburg city centre, during which hawkers were attacked by learners and their goods stolen. He also clashed with Limpopo education minister Joe Paahla, calling him a ”contraceptive to transformation”.
A Jacob Zuma supporter, Malema has been trying to unseat Limpopo premier and ANC provincial chairperson Sello Moloto, a known supporter of President Thabo Mbeki.