Populism thrives on a diet of enemies — crude, roughly drawn enemies who can easily be summoned from the unconscious. The other thing about populism is that it requires attention, constant attention. When the public switches off or starts paying attention to something else, the pressure to summon a crude, roughly drawn enemy grows. And so it is with Julius Malema, somewhat unkindly referred to as El Douche by his detractors, who summoned a new enemy for public consumption this week. He had been doing just fine by demonising the Guptas and Jacob Zuma because everyone from the Helen Suzman Foundation to Marxist Workers Tendency, Yeoville Chapter, agreed with him wholeheartedly. Then he decided that it was time to pick on "Indians". Speaking at his party’s fourth birthday party, Malema made it known that he had examined Indians and found them wanting. "They are ill-treating our people. They are worse than Afrikaners were. This is not an anti-Indian statement‚ it’s the truth. Indians wh...

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