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(HERALD) The single story, Julius Malema

The single story, Julius Malema
Monday, 07 November 2011 00:00
Lovemore Ranga Mataire

The article by South African author and commentator Udo Froese titled "Confusion of ANC leadership" on 24 October, 2011 reveals the extent to which many have missed the plot in their interpretation of issues confronting the ANC in particular, and South Africa in general.

Froese's analysis on Julius Malema and the ANC dwelt more on the symptomatic dimensions and failed to address the genesis of the current contradictions inherent within the South African transformational fabric. The major weakness of his analysis, which is synonymous with most narratives on Africa, is its attachment of a single story identity to anything and everything unfolding within the ANC and its youth league led by Malema.

Ignorant of why Malema fails to fit in a box, Froese attaches a single story identity of a rabble-rouser and regrettably fails to inform the public of the real issues at play.

His veiled instigation to punish and silence Malema is nothing but a knee jerk response to a major problem that, unless addressed, is bound to have such a cataclysmic contagion effect across the region and Africa.

Froese's piece fits into the same scope of those that view Malema through a narrow aperture and generally regard him as politically "dangerous, radical, racist, bigoted, stupid, corrupt and ignorant", a narrow narrative woven into a damning dark tale. It would have been helpful for Froese to have read An Inconvenient Youth - Julius Malema and the New ANC, a recent book by Fiona Forde, which offers a refreshing understanding of the multi-layered intricate workings of the ANC as a ruling party, how it struggles with power, within itself and with the idea of South Africa.

Published in September 2011, the author confesses to have also once viewed Malema and the ANC through the narrow lens of a single story, until 2009, when Nigerian writer Chimanda Ngozi Adichie delivered a speech at Oxford University and spoke about the "single story" and the dangers of interpreting life or people through a narrow lens.

"As a young girl she was an avid reader, but her middle class upbringing exposed her to American rather than African children's books. So when she started dabbling with her own stories, as young girls do, she found she was mentally locked into the characters and tales she had read about. She wouldn't understand until many years later."

Ngozi Adichie's opening words would always be followed by characters "who were white and blue-eyed. They played in the snow. They ate apples and they talked a lot about the weather - how lovely it was the sun came up".

All this despite the fact that she had never set foot outside Nigeria. They did not have snow, and they ate mangoes instead of apples. They never dwelt on the weather; under the ever present African sun, there was no need. Years later, Ngozi Adichie was also at the end of the narrow lens when her university roommate in the United States was surprised to find out that Ngozi could speak English fluently, ignorant of the fact that it is the official language in Nigeria. That roommate had a "single story of Africa".

It is this single story dilemma or trap that distorts the interpretation and analysis of the ANC Youth League president, especially in South Africa, where the white dominated media tends to view him through narrow lens, with his work always reported off the "single story". It is critical to avoid forcing Malema into a box.

Like every mortal, Malema is an imperfect being, prone to inevitable human frailties. But it is prudent that we examine the substance of the issues he raises 17 years after the birth the Rainbow Nation.

In 1994 when South Africa achieved democratic rule, Malema was just 13-years-old, having been born on 3 March, 1981. Despite his youth, Malema rose through the ranks to become one of the most dominant voices articulating the aspirations of the once oppressed blacks.

"Julius Malema was 13 when apartheid came to an end and he lived the rest of his formative years in the democratic dispensation. But for him and many others, 1994 did not bring transformation overnight. His teen years were very tough and the Malema family struggled to get by. The poverty that hung over that household in some ways became more endemic because it was one of the families that 1994 left behind," writes Forde.

In short, Malema's message to South Africa is simple and nakedly honest: South Africa is not yet Uhuru.

Malema derives his moral mandate in raising these unfulfilled aspirations from his upbringing in one of the poorest suburbs (Disteneng) of South Africa. He was born to an epileptic and emotionally challenged mother who left her job when sickness took hold of her.

The young Malema knew nothing but poverty, a second class citizen in his own country.
He was reared among his extended family, the majority being women, and he learned to raise his voice at a young age to be heard. So what are the issues that Malema is raising that resonate among blacks?

According to Forde, Malema is touching on hot political issues like land reform, the need to share wealth, nationalisation and the need for the African majority to be at the centre of decision making processes. Malema is frustrated at the slow pace of transformation.

On land, South Africa's majority population is landless while up north in Zimbabwe, where the Matangiras are now established commercial farmers, it is a different story.

The second issue is that of the economy, which 17 years after majority rule is still in the hands of whites. The state's grip of the economy is weak and the fact that so many of the large corporations are still controlled by whites does little to nurture solid state capital relations.

Third, its judiciary, which is lauded by many pundits as independent, is still a sad relic of the apartheid era despite being headed by a black judge. The same cannot be said of Zimbabwe where we have completely indigenised the bench to reflect the demographic balance and our aspirations as a nation.

Fourth, Malema is convinced that the security sector in South Africa is maladjusted. Very few South Africans can be proud of their army, which during the formative years of that country's majority rule could not be sent to any peace keeping missions because the various combat groups patched together under the SANDF could not gel.

Widespread prevalence of crime is also testimony to a combination of debilitating factors, which include the breakdown of the social fabric owing to the high unemployment rate and the second is the non-integration of the police force, which seems to have different command structures.

The recent sacking of Police Commissioner Bheki Cele is sure proof of a maladjusted system buckling under a myriad of forces.

These are the issues that Malema is raising. They may be laced with rhetoric but no one can dispute their authenticity and immediacy. Yes, Malema does sometimes play to the gallery, but is any politician ever immune to gamesmanship?

Ideologically, Malema is informed by the rich history of the ANC, which has always stood on the side of the marginalised. Is it a surprise that he should find refuge within Zanu-PF's empowerment policies, while casting the MDC and Botswana's ruling party as agents of Western imperialism?

Malema's ideological leanings are inimical to the white hegemonic hold on economic power. The prospect of Malema forging a united front with Zanu- PF makes the white establishment in South Africa quiver with trepidation. Even Forde, herself a white Irish woman, cannot escape from her inherent insecurity and prejudice when she writes about Malema's visit to Zimbabwe. She clearly shows her disdain when Malema addressed the South African media soon after his return from Zimbabwe.

"But Malema ignored what they had to say and instead chose to restate and reinforce his views as the press conference got under way. ‘We want Zanu PF to be retained in power. That's what we want. We are not going to relate with some Mickey Mouse we don't know. We relate with people we've got a history together (sic)'".

This, in my view is the cardinal sin that Malema is being crucified for.

It does not end there. Forde highlights a conversation she had with ANC Youth League Treasurer Pule Mabe during a visit to Zimbabwe. Mabe told her of the possibility of the two countries (South Africa and Zimbabwe) becoming superpowers of Africa given the enormous natural resources within their armpits.

"You see, South Africa is the biggest producer of platinum in the world," Mabe tells Forde. "Zimbabwe is sitting on big reserves of platinum as well."

The two southern Africa countries are sitting on the vast majority of the world's deposits, he points out.

Indeed, so large is South Africa's platinum wealth that it now supplies in excess of 80 percent of global demand. Zimbabwe's deposits are also not insignificant.

The deposits in Zimbabwe are attractive in that they are closer to the surface than those of South Africa, making mining operations less costly and profit margins wider.

"So if we work together, we can create a superpower. Africa's first big superpower. And then we will be fully independent and we will stand up to the world. Africa can't do that without a superpower," Mabe is quoted as saying.

This strategic vision and revolutionary pan-African thinking is the real reason why Malema and his allies are being persecuted.

The disappointment is that the ANC is oblivious to the obtrusive interests of imperialists in the whole saga. These are imperialists who clearly are apprehensive of any talk of strategic alliance among African nations.

It is the same white imperialists who are swift to ridicule Malema as nothing more than an uneducated township boy, and yet the same uneducated boy pulled one of the most extraordinary political coups of all time at Polokwane not so long ago.
Anyone who attaches a single story narrative to Malema is either naive or mischievous.

Forde makes a crucial concession:

"But what got lost in emotion and commotion was one crucial fact; Malema is not stupid. He is not classically educated nor is he broadly informed but he is enormously clever and his ability to manipulate information- one of his key definitions of intelligence- is as remarkable as his ability to recall it, which is what makes him the cunning and wily character that he is and a master at exploiting opportunity."

Malema is a product of poverty, politics, power and a racial past and his anger must come as "no surprise in a society that is not only still divided along racial lines but tethering on a lethal mix of unfulfilled promises from the transition, gross inequality in socio-economic terms" and an ANC still ideologically transforming itself from a liberation movement into a political party.

The ANC is still searching for its soul and seemingly at loss as to how to deal with emerging internal contradictions.

In the words of Forde, the ANC is in a state of interregnum- the old notions are slowly becoming obsolete while the new ones are still to be born and defined. It is this political vacuity that Malema occupies and manipulates.

ANC needs to do some serious introspection and deal with issues that seemingly make the party look dysfunctional.

What the ANC leadership will decide on Malema at his disciplinary hearing is indeed their right, but this will not sweep away the simmering anger over the slow pace of transformation owing mainly to the unequal distribution of resources.

Labels: ANC, ANC YOUTH LEAGUE, BHEKI CELE, JULIUS MALEMA, LAND REFORM

posted by MrK @ 7:47 PM