BANTU MNIKI | No loudspeaker this time: Malema must answer

Julius Malema is an established loudmouth whose style of politics has delivered many “benefits” for him throughout his political career.

However, he is a very powerful loudmouth.

He leads one of the most vibrant and demographically young political formations in SA.

Over the past decade or so, he has managed to harness that youthful energy to shake up the political environment in SA.

His contribution has been to give a voice to the youth, so that the youth can somehow feel they have a voice.

To an extent, the EFF has helped our country avoid a chaotic eruption of the repressed energy of youthful political expression.

At the same time, Malema comes from a specific school of politics.

He is a child of the ANC. He has been involved in many of the activities that have reduced the ANC from a once powerful voice of the masses to a formation that has enabled corruption on a massive scale.

Because of the fundamental flaws in outlook that caused this fall from grace in the politics of the ANC, Malema has also been both a victim and perpetrator of that system.

His association with allegations of corruption is not new, both when he was the ANCYL leader and as leader of the EFF.

The VBS scandal, which is his proverbial hanging cloud, keeps coming back to hang over his head.

The numerous mentions of Malema at the Madlanga Commission have brought back questions about all the allegations of impropriety he has ever faced.

His association with shady characters such as Adriano Mazzotti, Mohammed “Mo” Sayed and disgraced senior police officer Major-General Feroz Khan, among other names, have brought these questions into the foreground.

As more revelations, such as the shenanigans from the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption emerge, the anticipation for the appearance of Malema at the Madlanga Commission rises.

Surely, Malema must appear at the Madlanga Commission to give a structured account of his responses to the recent allegations against him.

There is little doubt Malema would rather stand on the podium and shoot from the hip than sit and give a structured account.

If his performance before the courts in KuGompo City during his stadium shooting case is any indication, he does poorly in those settings.

Perhaps his preference for the usual bluster from the podium tends to delude him.

He seems to think the same approach might work in a structured setting.

Malema is already anticipating his appearance before the Madlanga Commission, and in his true style he has launched a pre-emptive public response to allegations, denying everything.

“The EFF calls on all South Africans to resist the urge to succumb to juvenile and politically motivated insinuations drawn from the work of the commission which are not rooted on any evidence or fact.”

The first thing Malema does in this statement is to frame his own troubles as the troubles of the EFF.

This is his strongest play because it sets him up as a victim within a broader “political attack” against the EFF.

If this framing is accepted by his followers, it will turn them into his protectors, but will also delude him into thinking he has won half the battle ahead.

What he does not even try to do is to shield the EFF from the fallout of his own troubles.

Although none of the allegations he must answer to were mandated by the EFF, if proven true, his main attempt is to pull the EFF into the quagmire of his own making.

This is an old political tactic in SA from the playbook of former president Jacob Zuma and the ANC, among other leaders.

The second thing he does in this statement is to allege political motivation.

Though he is careful not to accuse the Madlanga Commission directly of politically motivated actions, he gets close enough.

People who are not careful enough to listen to his words might conclude that he alleged political motivation on the part of the Madlanga Commission, when he in fact referred to the insinuations drawn from the work of the commission.

Similarly, his reference to the word juvenile is not directly aimed at the commission but at the insinuations.

If you listen to the entire rant Malema went on during the EFF’s launch of their election campaign, you can notice it is he who is trying to bait the commission into his playground.

That playground is the political arena. Hopefully, the commissioners leading the inquiry will not fall for his games.

The time will soon come for him to explain himself at the commission.