/ 26 February 2010

Has Juju bitten off too much?

Has Juju Bitten Off Too Much?

No sight gratified many people more this week than ANC Youth League president Julius Malema squirming and deflecting — and appearing not as in charge as usual.

He meekly tried going on the offensive but was essentially on the defensive, admitting that the reports about his lavish lifestyle and business interests were damaging.

Even if President Jacob Zuma rightfully reminds us that Juju owes us no explanation because he accounts only to the youth league, it is a matter of immense curiosity that a high-profile young man who has not worked before owns a house in Sandton, another one in Polokwane, a Mercedes-Benz and a watch worth R250 000.

It is the unexplained riches and the simultaneous attempt to portray himself as a poor African child that landed him on the ropes.

Despite accusing journalists of receiving brown envelopes and sleeping with politicians for information, for once he saw the importance of going from one media house to the next to explain himself.

It suggested he felt aggrieved and was worried about losing public face, despite repeating several times that he would not account to the media but to the relevant authorities.

Julius has not felt the heat as much as he is feeling it right now. He is under pressure these days not just from the “imperialist” media and white people — whom he routinely rubbishes — but also from his own comrades in the ANC and the alliance partners. This is further confirmation that in this country the only true, and truly felt, opposition to bullies in the ANC, be they Julius, Essop Pahad or Mathole Motshekga, comes from their own comrades.

When Juju was insulting women, saying “those who did not enjoy it [a sexual encounter] do not stay for breakfast”, he was confident that he could brush away gender activist Mbuyiselo Botha and anyone who complained without being shaken.

When he successfully provoked Inkatha Freedom Party president Mangosuthu Buthelezi into a spat by calling him a “factory fault”, he could predict that Buthelezi would write one long missive and that would be the end of that.

When he called Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille “a racist little girl”, he knew that the DA’s efficient communications machinery would issue a statement in reaction, but that he would have long moved on.

But Malema began stirring a hornet’s nest when he took on ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe and other leaders of the South African Communist Party, calling them fake leaders who spend most of their time drinking red wine.

Sparks have started flying. Part of the youth league’s war with the left is a principled war, whether you agree with it or not. It is not about Julius Malema or Floyd Shivambu.

It is a war that even the iconic Nelson Mandela was part of in the 1950s when he was leading the fight against communist influence in the ANC. Peter Mokaba picked up the same baton when the ANC was unbanned. And it is not too long ago that Fikile Mbalula, as the secretary of the youth league, stood up against Cosatu as well. It is a battle that will outlive Malema and Blade Nzimande and Zwelinzima Vavi. But Malema’s language and contempt for everyone has resulted in a queue of people who want him to fail.

In most instances the youth league, of whatever generation, has won its ideological battles. The resulting cockiness makes the current young leaders believe they will always prevail. Hence the arrogance of their insistence that whoever does not support their nationalisation stance will not be re-elected to ANC leadership in 2012. It is an arrogance born of years of victories.

But I suspect that this time around, Malema may have bitten off more than he can chew. I believe he has opened way too many battlefronts within the structures of the mass democratic movement. The sheer disrespect he has shown to everyone means that not many will back him if it comes to the crunch.

He repeatedly informed the deputy president, Kgalema Motlanthe, that no one will tell them what to do, when Motlanthe attempted to kgalema (admonish) him. An ANC elder says they were shocked when Malema boasted on e.tv that even if they called him to order for his outburst, he would continue with his behaviour.

So his fate lies in his party. He still enjoys the support of Zuma, who views him as a rough diamond that in time will be polished. He will also be supported by those resisting a workerist takeover (but his dabbling in business will cost him, I think). And he was smart enough to think of “don’t talk to me, talk to my lawyer” this week — but it is unsustainable.

It is safe to assume that more revelations are on the way for both him and his adversaries as, Polokwane-style, the media again become the forum in which to throw dirt and discredit. Malema aside, the youth league might find that its ability to lobby, to canvass for its candidates, is compromised as its own monolith breaks.

It may not be time yet to write Malema’s political obituary, but he has severely harmed the reputation and influence of the ANC Youth League.