JUSTICE MALALA: Is Ramaphosa yesterday's man?
'Malema has the winds of global change under his wings. Love him or despise him, but don’t make a mistake: he is no longer a fringe figure in SA policy making'
EXTRACT
The power of Malema’s rhetoric and populism is huge. He exhorts, he cajoles, he makes up enemies (Indians and journalists), and he picks issues to exploit – all this fires up his supporters. Jacob Zuma may have been wrong back in the early 2010s when he said Malema would be president of SA, but he wasn’t wrong about Malema’s significance.
Look at Malema’s mobilisation tactics on land, race and the economy. Look at how he has turned the land restitution debate and the resultant parliamentary hearings into a referendum on the new SA and a debate on section 25 (the property clause) of the constitution even when that is not at all the issue here.
Whenever Malema shouts the ANC gets the shakes and adopts his policies. As he gains confidence, the ANC loses its resoluteness.
Across the globe leaders who are politically very similar to Cyril Ramaphosa are losing elections and becoming yesterday’s men and women. They are on the back foot. They are watching as political leaders who are a lot like Julius Malema win elections, step into office and implement policies that are dividing societies and undermining regional and continental pacts. These are leaders who are not just taking power in their own countries but are using local voice and influence to reshape the global geopolitical architecture. Last week in Mexico a populist, leftist leader, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, was elected president in a landslide victory that was interpreted by many as a rejection of the centrist path the country’s political elite has pursued over the past few decades.The rout in Mexico follows a series of rejections of establishment candidates across the globe, and the rise of populist leaders such as Donald Trump in the US, several in a fast-changing Europe and more in Latin A...
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