"Who is Julius Malema?" you may wonder. He is not well known outside of South Africa where he is the President of the Youth League of the ruling party, the African National Congress. He is a very controversial young man, a lightening rod who was recently described by Winnie Mandela, the estranged wife of Nelson Mandela, as a future president of South Africa. If Winnie Mandela is correct that Julius Malema is a future president of South Africa, then he merits to be known around the world. South Africa is a giant of Africa and if that country goes badly it will drag down the continent with it. That is why those both in and outside the continent are interested in how that country goes. That is why I am concerned that someone like Julius Malema is the president of the Youth League of the ruling party of that country and may one day become the president of the country.
Let me confess that I do not know the man. However, if the various things that have been reported about him are correct, then South Africans must make sure that he never goes closer to the presidency than he currently is. He is a young man who sees the world only in terms of black and white - and who can blame him, apartheid taught him that. He has a strong hatred for white people and seems to believe that white people have no right to meddle in African affairs, hence he still sings the song about killing white people in South Africa. He has no time for talk of reconciliation and the building of a multiracial South Africa. This very fact, makes him profoundly unfit to be president of South Africa.
Further, he seems to have a pan-African political ethos that requires African leaders to protect each other, shielding every dictator in their midst. This view was recently expressed when he chided the South African government for voting for a UN no fly zone in Libya. He describes the vote as one that supported the "killing of fellow Africans," claiming that Nelson Mandela would never have condoned such a vote. This reaction does not only betray a misreading of Nelson Mandela but also implies that if he were in charge, he would not support such a vote. However, when South Africans were killing fellow Africans who have migrated to that country, I did not hear Mr. Malema talk about the killing of fellow Africans. He was silent. He thinks of fellow Africans only when it comes to giving his support to dictators so that those dictators may kill their own people. According to Mr. Malema, therefore, it were better for Gaddafi to kill his people than for him to be stopped. Julius Malema is among those who use the struggle against white domination as excuse for dictatorship in Africa.
Some are beginning to describe South Africa as a predatory state, a description that has been used to describe many African countries before South Africa. One of the reasons why African states are predatory is because their leaders are usually dictators. Julius Malema sometimes sees the South African constitution as an inconvenience and if given the opportunity he too would become a dictator in the name of defending Africans. Dictators before Julius Malema have not been good for Africa and Julius Malema is not good for Africa. It would be a disaster if he were one day to become president of South Africa.
Let me confess that I do not know the man. However, if the various things that have been reported about him are correct, then South Africans must make sure that he never goes closer to the presidency than he currently is. He is a young man who sees the world only in terms of black and white - and who can blame him, apartheid taught him that. He has a strong hatred for white people and seems to believe that white people have no right to meddle in African affairs, hence he still sings the song about killing white people in South Africa. He has no time for talk of reconciliation and the building of a multiracial South Africa. This very fact, makes him profoundly unfit to be president of South Africa.
Further, he seems to have a pan-African political ethos that requires African leaders to protect each other, shielding every dictator in their midst. This view was recently expressed when he chided the South African government for voting for a UN no fly zone in Libya. He describes the vote as one that supported the "killing of fellow Africans," claiming that Nelson Mandela would never have condoned such a vote. This reaction does not only betray a misreading of Nelson Mandela but also implies that if he were in charge, he would not support such a vote. However, when South Africans were killing fellow Africans who have migrated to that country, I did not hear Mr. Malema talk about the killing of fellow Africans. He was silent. He thinks of fellow Africans only when it comes to giving his support to dictators so that those dictators may kill their own people. According to Mr. Malema, therefore, it were better for Gaddafi to kill his people than for him to be stopped. Julius Malema is among those who use the struggle against white domination as excuse for dictatorship in Africa.
Some are beginning to describe South Africa as a predatory state, a description that has been used to describe many African countries before South Africa. One of the reasons why African states are predatory is because their leaders are usually dictators. Julius Malema sometimes sees the South African constitution as an inconvenience and if given the opportunity he too would become a dictator in the name of defending Africans. Dictators before Julius Malema have not been good for Africa and Julius Malema is not good for Africa. It would be a disaster if he were one day to become president of South Africa.
1 comment:
Malema is the kind of person that could seriously endanger the future and progress of the African Continent. He has very little education and his views center around racial issues and hate. It is sad to see people perpetuating these ideas in a country that is working so hard at overcoming its troubling past. If people like Malema are continually allowed to behave the way they do the plight of Africa is very bleak.
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