JULIUS Malema mooned his way into our political landscape with a controversial election victory in Mangaung in 2008.

Now, in the year that the ANC celebrates its centenary in that city, the loud, brash, charismatic, hypocritical and bling leader of the ANC Youth League walks away from the organisation of Nelson Mandela after his 15 minutes of fame.

He will not be at the ANC's centenary conference in Mangaung. He will have little or no influence on the contest for leadership in the party as December 2012 comes around.

He will swiftly disappear from the politics pages of national newspapers and move on to the crime pages as the Hawks, the SA Revenue Service and possibly the police go after him.

The mercurial Malema was a victim of his own hubris. Once elevated to the national stage, he started believing that he was bigger than the ANC. When he was allowed to bully, insult and intimidate ANC leaders and the opposition alike, he began to believe he was invincible.

He was not. As demonstrated yesterday by Cyril Ramaphosa's dismissal of his appeal against his suspension from the party, Malema failed to understand the organisation he belonged to.

He failed to understand its ethos and its dynamics. He began to define himself outside the ANC family. Hence the finding that many of his arguments were "naive, absurd and ridiculous". Like the mythical Icarus, he flew too close to the sun.

For the ANC and the South African family, the rise of this hypocritical and ethically questionable political buffoon has been a nightmare.

To those who had opposed the arrival of a new South Africa, he allowed space to say to us that Idi Amin had arrived, "as we told you he would".

For many who agonised about the future of South Africa, he was at the centre of the poisoning of our national discourse.

He will not be missed. With every day that passes, we will realise what an aberration we allowed to dictate the national agenda.

If anything, that realisation and Malema's departure must force the ANC to interrogate what it means to be in power today in a changing and challenging domestic and international landscape.

Unemployment continues to grow. Corruption is a ticking time bomb. Crime is back on the rampage. Inequality is worse here than anywhere else in the world.

This is the country that President Jacob Zuma must address on Thursday. These are the real problems that Julius Malema hijacked to further his own agenda. If Zuma does not address these problems, another populist like Malema will emerge.

Malema's options are few. He cannot go to court. In 14 days, his office at Luthuli House will be empty. The law is after him. He is finished.

Yet, there should be no celebrations in Mahlamba Ndlopfu and Luthuli House. His departure should focus the ANC leaders' minds not on Mangaung and the second term that Zuma is now likely to win, but on the real problems that bedevil us here and now.