THICK END OF THE WEDGE
PETER BRUCE: Julius Malema, the 6% leader, is a fascist. So what?
A racially transfixed narcissist with a thousand thoughts and few ideas, Julius is capable of saying literally anything
Help, I’m in danger of becoming the only usual suspect not to denounce Julius Malema and his EFF as fascists. Are they really? I haven’t a clue, but a string of recent columns agree they are. Tim Cohen wrote it. Gareth van Onselen wrote it. Adam Habib wrote it. Justice Malala has just written it. Beware, they warn, the EFF is a dictatorship in the making. Malema will soon require white men to wear their underpants on the outside. Let’s not run away from it. Julius may be a fascist. Or totalitarian. Or an autocrat. Pass the dictionary. Fascism, says one, is “a form of radical authoritarian nationalism, characterised by a desire for dictatorial powers, forcible suppression of opposition and control of industry and commerce”. You could easily insert Julius in there. But that definition also describes half of white South African people who voted for the National Party government for 40 years. Apartheid and the Afrikaner nationalist order was fascist in its heart. Lots of whites (and mor...
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