ADAM HABIB: Why are so many tolerant of the rise of Malema and his proto-fascists?
'For too long have analysts, journalists and opposition politicians cut them slack, given the EFF’s opposition to Zuma and the fact that they invigorated the fight simply because they played by an alternative set of rules'
EXTRACT
Mamdani suggests that the real crime of colonialism was to politicise indigeneity by granting civic rights to non-natives and denying them to natives who were compelled to live under customary rule. Mainstream nationalism continued this colonial tradition but subverted it, tying entitlements to indigeneity. This led to the continuous political disenfranchisement of yesterday’s immigrants, even though they were the product of what he termed “the dynamism of the commodity economy”.
To decode for our Marxist leaders in the EFF: playing the politics of race and hate inevitably degenerates into a politics of ethnicity and tribalism, the ultimate consequence of which is war, division, poverty and continued economic and political disempowerment. Mamdani's solution: to challenge the automatic link between indigeneity on the one hand and political identity and rights on the other.
I am not, as many are aware, a great fan of the EFF. I believe that it is a proto-fascist movement, one prone to racism, militarism and the politics of hatred. Its leaders speak of socialism, anti-capitalism and empowerment but their conduct belies this and their politics is likely implode the economy and plunge us into an equality of immiseration. Their leadership pride themselves on being university educated, arrogantly mocking Zuma for not being so, yet they betray an ideological rigidity and a thoughtless, formulaic politics that is typical of a bygone era. They condemned the Zuma Presidency for corruption, but they too were similarly involved in all manner of corruption and unethical conduct in Limpopo, and in institutions which they managed. This conduct has followed them into the EFF where they have compromising relationships with tobacco smugglers and all manner of dubious persons.For too long have analysts, journalists and opposition politicians cut them slack, given the EF...
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