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South Africa's hopes and fears rest on how the ANC reacts to the radical stance taken by Julius Malema and his brigade of Economic Freedom Fighters.

Malema yesterday told his supporters to invade unoccupied land. He said "the marginalised" should not stop at service-delivery protests but should occupy mines.

He singled out mines owned by billionaire Patrice Motsepe, and the mining interests of the deputy president of the country and the ANC, Cyril Ramaphosa, and of Speaker of Parliament Baleka Mbete, who is chairman of the ANC.

Though some people might dismiss Malema's statements as hot air and sound bites for the media his views should be engaged with and refuted.

The ANC-led government should not be caught off-guard as it was when the EFF brought disruptive activism to parliament. Ruling party MPs ended up contributing to the chaos.

Now that Malema has upped the stakes the ANC should react intelligently and show real political leadership

The EFF has made it clear that it intends to disregard the constitution.

It would be foolish for the ANC government to ignore the EFF and its constituency of 6% of the voting public.

It has been shown the world over that populism captures the hearts and minds of the people if those in office ignore the voices of the disgruntled.

The challenge for the ANC now is to tell the nation why Malema and his radical policies are poison for this country.

Malema has proved in the past few months that he and his MPs cannot simply be dismissed.

He is widely seen as the best tonic for the disenchanted and the marginalised.

The ANC should not only improve service delivery and stop rampant corruption, it should give people reason to believe that freedom and democracy are safe under its rule.

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