The EFF has gone a bit quiet lately, presumably because Sub-Prophet Floyd’s bank account is back in the news less than 12 months from an election and Daddy is in another of his moods. But if there’s one thing that can stir the cult into action, it’s a woman daring to raise her eyes and ask questions.
Earlier this week, favourite target of patriarchs, misogynists, looters and idiots, Karyn Maughan, reported that Daddy had kept oddly quiet during the latest round of interviews at the Judicial Services Commission.
Of course, the real mystery is why Julius Malema remains a fixture on that commission, given his often-repeated contempt for the judiciary, or at least those members of it who don’t give him his way.
Still, there he is, and there he was, staying, according to Maughan, noticeably silent as the discussion focused more on competence than politics.
The implication was clear: when there’s a candidate who has been involved in politically charged trials, he’s all over them. When it’s about the nuts and bolts of judicial excellence, he’s got nothing to contribute.
Late on Tuesday night, however, he did speak up, taking to X (formerly Twitter) to post an emoji of a pill, before posting again: “I don't just speak; I only spoke on your candidate, and now look at the results. I hope you took the stuff [another pill emoji] because it won’t be a good night for you.”
This isn’t anything new. It’s become standard practice for ethnic nationalists, whether they be MAGA Republicans in the US or the EFF here, to accuse their critics of being deranged and needing either to be medicated or sedated. This also has one foot firmly planted in misogynist pseudoscience, where, for centuries, “difficult” women were diagnosed as “hysterical”, a medically meaningless term named after women’s wombs (“hysterectomy” has the same root) as a way to ignore their experience of the patriarchal world.
Remember, Malema never asked a question, provoking me for shit. Now, all racists are complaining; you can go to the nearest hell and catch the next ship out.
— Julius Malema
But I digress. The point is that on Tuesday evening, Malema was content to dismiss Maughan with the standard Victorian approach of saying she should take some pills and calm down.
A confident public servant might have left it there. But Malema is neither of those things, and as Wednesday unfolded, it appeared that he had been deeply touched.
Again, we’ve seen this from thin-skinned populists all over the world, who deride their critics for being overly emotional, even as they scour the internet and rage at the smallest slight.
But as Wednesday unfolded, Malema’s anger — and its dutiful amplification by his disciples — was something to behold.
Loudest, as always, was Twitter warrior “Sentletse”, South Africa’s almost perfect equivalent to Trump’s My Pillow Guy, who posted an avalanche of genuflection to his lord and saviour, including pictures of Maughan and Scorpio investigative journalist Pauli van Wyk with the legend: “The faces of trash journalism in South Africa”. Malema retweeted this.
Another stalwart, actor Fana Mokoena, tweeted: “I have yet to meet a single white journalist who reports only facts, not innuendos, untruths and fabrications about the EFF. Just FACTS. I would be delighted to meet just ONE.”
It was a weird way to admit that he has never met either Maughan or Van Wyk, and an even weirder way to ask for an introduction, but then I don’t know the man and can’t really judge his social skills.
Malema, however, couldn’t be appeased by his followers. And so, when News24 posted Maughan’s follow-up piece about how judge David Unterhalter had been overlooked by the commission again, he tweeted: “Remember, Malema never asked a question, provoking me for shit. Now, all racists are complaining; you can go to the nearest hell and catch the next ship out.”
Yep, nothing says you’re presidential material like referring to yourself in the third person in a tweet you banged out in a rage after seething for a day about something a journalist said about you.
A government in waiting, indeed.
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