The new symbol of protest is the tent. It is cheap but does its job and can be erected almost anywhere. You can pitch it near Wall Street or St Paul’s Cathedral and you have an instant protest that can reverberate around the globe.
But, although the tent is a potent weapon of classless protest, it has not really been used in South African protests, which have been limited to daylight hours. Critics saw the group who protested a week or two back at the JSE as too tame and too middle class to suffer the discomfort of camping out. Wait for the real JSE protest, the one led by Julius Malema, one observer said.
My sense is that the ANC Youth League leader does not do tents. I cannot see him, somehow, emerging with beret and Breitling from his tent in the early morning outside the JSE, to yawn, stretch, scratch and brew up a cup of tea.
His protest, or at least that of his supporters, has been somewhat more disruptive. I was watching journalists covering the taking of Tripoli at more or less the same time as Juju’s disciplinary hearings began in downtown Jo’burg some weeks back. The hacks in Libya had flak jackets and helmets, kit that would have been very useful at Luthuli House as rocks rained down on the unprotected heads of journalists.
But Malema’s economic freedom-fighter protest can in no way be thought of as a local version of the global “Occupy” movement. A key focus for the occupiers is that they are unhappy that a disproportionate few, the 1%, own the majority of global wealth. In the circumstances, you can hardly imagine them choosing one of the 1% as a leader. Equally, one wouldn’t expect a one-percenter to think he could represent the 99% on this issue.
Credit Suisse last week published its second annual Global Wealth Report, showing that the richest 1% owns fully 44% of global assets. To be in this category you have to have wealth — that is, assets less debt — of $712Â 000 (R5.7million).
Malema has been coy about disclosing his wealth but has reportedly benefited from a flood of tender deals, so much so that if he ever quit or was forced out of politics, he could write the definitive guide: Juju’s 30-second Guide to Successful Tenderpreneurship, launch a speaking tour and drink Blue Label to the end of his days.
The Mail & Guardian has reported that the Malema family manages a large chunk of the Limpopo road and transport department’s R4.6-billion budget.
He has cashed in on high-demand municipal property sales, and his burgeoning property portfolio includes a R900Â 000 farm on the outskirts of Polokwane and a house in an upmarket Polokwane gated estate, both purchased by his family trust — as well as two residential homes, one in Polokwane and one in Johannesburg. Anyone who can knock down a R3.6-million house in Sandton to build a R16-million mansion is clearly worth more than R5.7million. He is one of the 1%. Occupy Julius Malema!