'How shameful Julius'

South Africa's Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader, Julius Malema made a statement to the media during his party's memorial on the death of Cuba's former President, Fidel Castro in Soweto on 2 December 2016. Malema is quoted calling on President Robert Mugabe to step down. He is quoted as saying "we love President Mugabe, but we need a new leader. Mugabe must pass on the baton just as Castro passed it on".
This is very surprising from Malema, to say the least. Malema is on record for idolizing President Mugabe. He is among young African politicians who have been groomed to become the continent's future leaders. Malema rose from the grassroots of the governing African National Congress (ANC) Youth League to become its president.

He exuded great enthusiasm and revolutionary spirit. At one point he questioned why poor people continued to vote without a corresponding improvement in their social status. He popularized the view that the South African and Zimbabwe's political revolutions should naturally had been followed by economic revolutions to complete the emancipation of the previously marginalized masses in the sister countries. This resonated well with the land reclamation exercise that had already been implemented in Zimbabwe. His was a mission to import the same economic revolution into South Africa.

It appears Malema became too powerful and undisciplined within the ANC that he started to challenge the party's leadership on various key issues. This resulted in his expulsion from the ANC. Banking on a misplaced sense of indispensability and political clout, Malema went on to form his own Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party. The party has won some few inconsequential seats in the various provincial legislatures and the national legislature in the country. Malema is riding on the frustration among the poor South Africans over the perceived slow pace of transformation since the end of apartheid in 1994. The overriding sentiment among the poor in that country is that the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) programme has only created a token millionaires, among them Malema who is reported to own several luxurious houses and stays in the posh Sandton suburb, among the whites elites. No wonder why the then Editor of the South African Times newspaper, Mondli Makhanya once posited in 2010 that Malema would "press the self-destruct button" in the next few years. This has happened during our lifetime.   

The utterances by Malema were deservedly castigated by the South African Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) which issued a condemnation through its Spokesperson, Kenneth Mokgathle, saying that "he (Malema) was instructed to destabilize not only the governing party (ANC), but the entire country. He is again entrusted with the mammoth task of dethroning the African hero of our liberation, Uncle Bob" He added that "We are not humbled by Malema's attack on Zimbabwe's freedom fighter and its President‚ Comrade Robert Gabriel Mugabe. Everyone knows the contribution that comrade Mugabe played in the liberation of the occupied Azania. Harare played a crucial role in training our military from both the MK‚ APLA and AZANLA. We will support Harare when that need arises."

The statement by the PAC goes a long way to show how President Mugabe is respected in the region, the African continent and across the struggling Third World. It also exposes Malema as an agent of the West in the making.

It is not true that President Mugabe has become a political liability. All the ZANU PF provinces have endorsed him as the Party's candidate for the 2018 Presidential elections. This is an affirmation of his nomination as the Party's candidate for the same elections at the Party's Congress held in Harare in December 2014.

President Mugabe's spokesperson, George Charamba said as much when he indicated that "we are going to have a ZANU PF Mugabe candidature for the 2018 elections and we will win resoundingly" The clamouring for a different candidate by Zimbabwe's opposition parties is testimony to their fear that they will definitely lose the 2018 elections to President Mugabe. Otherwise if they were certain of defeating him, they should, instead, welcome him as a weak and beatable candidate.

How shameful for a growing politician like Malema to be corrected by the pan-African comrades who have seen through his machinations. It could be that Malema is seeking to court the attention of the remnants of the Rhodesian capital resident in South Africa for funding for his party.

Malema once declared that "he would kill for Jacob Zuma". Today, the two are no longer in good books in South African politics. Malema vowed again that he was working to topple the same Zuma he helped propel to power. How confused!! In previous visits to Harare when he met President MUGABE, Malema would praise the iconic statesman as a shining example of a true revolutionary. He indicated that he was coming for consultations with the ZANU PF Youth League on how issues of empowerment and indigenisation could be implemented across the region. It is the same Malema who is now seeing the evil in President Mugabe whom he used to idolize and consult.

The strength and zeal with which Malema gets lost in the political maze could be likened to the description given to an Italian 19th century politician, Giuseppe Garibaldi, that he had "the strength of a lion but the brains of an ox". Such a combination is dangerous, not only to South Africa, but to the entire region and the progressive world. Malema sees himself as a kingmaker. He once called for regime change in Botswana, which resulted in the ANC issuing an apology to the Botswana Democratic Party. Such is the political liability that Malema has become.