Julius Malema – The low-hanging fruit of populism

Posted: July 10th, 2009 | By Ray Hartley | Posted in General | Tagged as , , , , , , , ,
  • 7 Comments
  

This blog post has been inspired by Chris Roper’s comment on Twitter: “I’ve stopped writing columns about Malema, because it’s like shooting fish with their feet in their mouths in a barrel.”
He is a brave man for there will be many days when the pen will run dry and the ripe “low-hanging fruit” spoken of with disturbing frequency by the MBA lecturers will present it’s blushing cheeks for picking.
You see, I can’t resist writing about Malema because, like Bruno, he solves the question of how to fill hours of meaningless conversation with hours of delightfully righteous political anger.
For Bruno and Malema are both fish, both in a barrel, and both with their feet in their mouths. A year ago I would have said that there was a difference: Bruno knew he had his foot in his mouth and was milking it, while Malema didn’t realise he was making an ass of himself.
Now I’m not so sure. I think Malema is counting on offending the sensibilities of that most predictable thing called “the media” as he deliberately sets out to be outrageous. How else could one account for such a consistently vacuous stream of self-immolating public statements?
The latest came this afternoon (segues seamlessly into filling the inane hours). Said Malema: “We will never apologise to some Mickey Mouses who want to put pressure on us.”
There you have it. The Equality Court, its robes, wigs (actually, I don’t think they still wear wigs, but conjure the image nonetheless) and faux red leather high backs notwithtstanding, is “Micky Mouse”.
Already there are several angles that present themselves. Mickey Mouse should sue, for example. I remember when Barend du Plessis was Finance Minister, the joke was: “What did Mickey Mouse get for his birthday? A Barend du Plessis watch!”
Another angle of the more sombre type: Once more our judiciary is under attack by the next generation of ANC leaders who clearly think that judges should report to Luthuli House. Okay, you can laugh now. Not even a chuckle? A little giggle?
Okay, I understand. Malema’s Mickey Mouse reference was a response to his being hauled over the coals for making fun of a rape accuser, so I can understand why few are laughing their heads off.
To Chris Roper, brave champion of not writing about the madness of populism, I raise my pen. You have taken an honourable course and I wish you well. Me? I can’t resist the low-hanging fruit.

Related posts:

  1. Is the tide turning against Julius Malema?
  2. Julius Malema and the theatre of the absurd
  3. Julius Malema has bolted. Shut the stable door!
  4. Zuma to discipline Julius Malema – again …
  5. Julius Malema’s sickening political opportunism at Caster Semenya’s celebration

 

Comments

 

Chris Roper

July 10, 2009 at 4:06 pm

I just wanted to make the fish in mouth joke! Jeez – a victim of my desire to be funny in 140 characters, yet again.
I am definitely going to have to write about Malema again. But my escape clause is, I meant on News24. So it’s okay to do it for the Mail & Guardian. (Yet more spindoctoring – I could BE Julius Malema, if I wasn’t so black).

I do want to go on record as being the man who thought of calling the Youth League the ANCYL-biters, though. I’m proud of that one.

 

Elizabeth MacLeod

July 10, 2009 at 7:01 pm

As much as I’d like lil Ma-Looney to drop off the political radar, he is pretty entertaining. As for his status as a human being? mm

 

Larry Goodfella

July 10, 2009 at 11:03 pm

Reminds me of that other ‘eye of the storm’ hunter, Dumisani Mkaya. He fortunately died prematurely of AIDs and spared us his intentional idiocy. And then came Malema….sigh.

 

Eli Jikelele

July 13, 2009 at 11:16 am

Julius (Oink) Malema should be deployed where his talents are most needed. The residents of the effluent suburb or Diepsloot could use a bright ray of sunshine like him. If he really wants to make an impact, then Malema should invite the Premier of Gauteng to join him so that they can put out the flames of sedition threatening to engulf the country’s most populous province. If this fails to quell the outrage of Diepsloot residents, they must simply get Zuma to put in a guest appearance. This bright sunny individual is sure to bring smiles to the faces of the many deprived citizens living in squalor and crime. Zuma, like Piet Koornhof before him, has already gained a reputation as being a man of prolific numbers of promises. The voter fodder should just keep the faith as I am sure Zuma has every intention of starting to deliver on them even if it means having to serve a third term in office to get started.

 

Nkosinathi Khanyile

July 13, 2009 at 12:45 pm

This young and brave gentleman has a very bright future lying ahead him. He doesn’t waste time, he calls a spade a spade. He is such a straight shooter, and he is always prepared to make unpopular statements if needs be.

We are 100% behind you Juju, you will always be my president. Come 2014 you must climb he ladder mshana. The powerless and uninfluencial peasants can open their wet mouths as wide as they want, but they have no effect. They know that too.

We will die where this young men will die, We are his first line of defence. Nobody will do anything to him.

Viva my President !!!!

WE ARE 100% BEHIND YOU CHIEF!!!!

 

Larry Goodfella

July 13, 2009 at 3:54 pm

Quite happy with you dying alongside your jujuboy. 100%.

 

G. Annandale

July 14, 2009 at 9:29 am

“It is terrible, the way whites in South Africa seek to vilify and ridicule other races and certain animals are appalling. There we have it again. Whites undermining black leaders by dragging one of our foremost black leaders, the inspiring and morally upright Julius Malema, of to some ridiculous court and calling on him to apologise to some cheap prostitute”, said Vilifaki, with a flick of his wrist.

Vilikazi said, placing his hand gently on my knee and leaning closer, his lips almost touching my cheek, actually it would’ve had I withdraw slightly; “To add insult to injury that villainous and foul Zapiro character, depicts our great struggle hero, political educator, economist of note and saviour of our mining industry, as a pig. It is a clear attempt by the white apartheid agents to undermine unity and transformation”

I solicited comments from other experts to test the climate out there and was surprised to find eminent political commentators with very strong sentiments over the issue.

Political commentator Unity Kippawedge feels the latest cartoon by Zapiro is aimed at destroying unity. Certain members of the pig community are apparently outraged because of the degrading depiction of pigs as Malema by Zapiro. “This thing can drive the wedge between our citizens deeper. There is a chasm forming between groups. The pigs are deeply offended”, Unity said shaking her head sadly from side to side.

As is often the case, many issues concerning our daily lives spill over into the land and agricultural domain, this not being an exception. Rasher Otterman, president of the Pig Breeders Association believes because of the Zapiro cartoon, there will be a definite drop in sales of pork, which can lead to the demise of emerging black farmers just starting out. He was not prepared to comment on contention that some factions in his organisation are conspiring with Zapiro and intentionally uses this issue to regain land they lost because of land distribution. There may be some truth in the contention, since Zapiro, being Jewish probably does not particularly care about the lot of pigs and pig farmers.

It is no wonder that giant of the African legal fraternity, upholder of values such as truth and integrity, Judge Slippery Hlope, calls for the Aficanisation of our legal system. Success for Judge Hlope will mean fair treatment of our leaders. We will never again have to experience the humiliation of a great leader such as Julius Malema being subjected to a bastardised legal system that does not know whether it is Dutch or Roman.

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