Julius seizer? No‚ just Malema the manipulator

06 March 2018 - 06:35
By Ranjeni Munusamy
EFF leader Julius Malema. File photo.
Image: ALON SKUY/THE TIMES EFF leader Julius Malema. File photo.

If there is anyone who knows how to press South Africa’s buttons it is Julius Malema.

His speech at the launch of the EFF’s voter registration campaign in Johannesburg on Sunday was the type of populist demagoguery that would make Hugo Chavez proud – and perhaps a little envious.

Malema sought to do two things in his address. The first was to assert the EFF’s relevance in the changed political landscape and the second was to shift attention away from the new star attraction‚ President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Malema is accomplished at rattling the cages of the establishment and the middle class‚ and there is nothing that causes more upset than threatening the constitutional edifice and structure of society.