JUSTICE MALALA | Underestimate Malema and the EFF at your peril

One of the most sinister, cruel, criminal, and unethical acts in a democratic South Africa happened at the Judicial Services Commission’s interviews for the position of chief justice in February 2022. There were three extremely strong candidates: the well-known judge Raymond Zondo, the then Supreme Court of Appeal judge president Mandisa Maya, and Gauteng judge president Dunstan Mlambo.

As the interviews progressed, it became clear that EFF leader Julius Malema, and the former chair of the EFF, advocate Dali Mpofu, were hell-bent on ensuring that Mlambo and Zondo would not get the position. As the process continued, they resorted to a disgusting tactic.

Without a shred of proof, Mpofu asked Mlambo to respond to “rumours” of him sexually harassing women, including judges. Malema gleefully asked the judge to respond to rumours that he had asked for sexual favours from women in exchange for sitting as acting judges in the Gauteng division of the high court. No woman has laid a complaint against Mlambo. No evidence that he did such a thing exists. They made it all up. Sixteen months later, the slur and the taint on Mlambo’s name remains. Meanwhile, Malema and Mpofu have not apologised or faced any consequences for their fabricated allegations.

Mlambo should be chief justice today. Based on his track record, the man is head and shoulders above many of his peers. Those allegations wrecked his path to the position. Those allegations were the kind of casual, cynical, cruelty that Malema has displayed throughout his political career. It is what we must remember when we consider the power that we will give Malema and the EFF in next year’s elections. It is this willingness, this enthusiasm, this thirst even, to be used by forces we do not know to do their dirty work for them, that we must remember.

Every time the ANC fails to run a state-owned enterprise properly, every time the ANC breaks yet another department, every time the ANC runs a province or municipality into the ground, is a gain for the EFF.

Here is the simple truth: the so-called state capture wing of the ANC, at whose head stands Jacob Zuma, did not want to see Mlambo at the head of the judiciary. This is a man who had stood firm on the law in many instances and had not allowed even a whiff of the scent of corruption to taint him. Why was Malema working so hard to ensure that the man they most hated did not get the top job? Where are the complainants in Mpofu and Malema’s sordid allegations?

In the late 2000s many of us warned South Africa about the dangers of electing a compromised man to the presidency. South Africans did it anyway, and the result were the nine wasted years of Zuma.

On Saturday the EFF dominated the news as it put on a show of force, filling the 94,000-seater FNB Stadium in Soweto with supporters bussed in from across the country. Malema gave a speech that gave notice to the ANC and anyone else listening that he and his comrades are preparing for power through a straight win at the polls or by becoming a kingmaker in future national and provincial coalitions.

It would be folly to under-estimate Malema and the EFF. The party has the most effective recruitment machine in the country: the ANC. Every time the ANC fails to run a state-owned enterprise properly, every time the ANC breaks yet another department, every time the ANC runs a province or municipality into the ground, is a gain for the EFF.

Crucially, our economic growth this year will be about 0.1% to 0.3% if we are lucky. That means that unemployment will worsen, hunger and poverty will further entrench themselves, and inequality will deepen. Where do the desperate victims of this ANC misrule go? They will hear the promises of the EFF and rush to support it. On Saturday, Malema made this very clear: “We want the land. We are not here for any Mickey Mouse arrangement. We want the land, and that land must be taken from the white minority rule and be given to all the people of South Africa.”

Populism flourishes in hard times. The ANC’s successes of the past fifteen years have been a steady delivery of failure on the economy, on policing, on social cohesion, on efficiency, on governance, on transformation, and on trade and industry.

Into the wasteland that is South Africa, caused by the ANC, steps a Malema — a populist who speaks as powerfully and threateningly and even persuasively as the EFF leader does. He promises whatever he wants because he knows that he is unlikely to get into power and be held accountable for all of it. On his transgressions, such as the criminal assault of judge Mlambo, he knows institutions such as the JSC have become poodles with no spines left to hold him accountable. He rides roughshod over everyone and everything.

Malema is coming, and he will be a very powerful man after next year’s elections.