Keep a close watch on Julius Malema

Do not mistake what follows as praise. Julius Malema is at the top of his game … and his game is politics, with all the ducking, diving, misdirection and rabble-rousing that that (ig)noble profession implies.

He learned a long time ago that, in South Africa, it is easy to create confusion, stir up dust, start diversions or go onto the attack – when you are accused of malfeasance.

Now that the criminal chickens appear to be coming home to roost in the VBS Mutual Bank saga – sometimes referred to as the country’s “biggest bank heist” – Malema moved to the offensive, well aware that he and senior EFF leaders have been alleged to have been the hidden beneficiaries of the large-scale fraud.

Hosting a supposed “no-holds-barred” conference on Thursday with selected journalists, in which he said no question would be disallowed, Malema was at his waltzing finest, smoothly twisting away from real answers to real questions. It didn’t help much, though, that there weren’t too many of the latter.

As expected, his followers proclaimed it a massive victory against those “plotting” against their fearless leader. His critics were less convinced.

In the end, this “dog-and-pony show” was still a long way from being a court of law, as even Malema himself acknowledged in saying he would fight in the court of public opinion. Indictments and prosecutors will be a tougher act to deal with.

Should we, in the media, even be giving the EFF the oxygen of publicity? That is a valid question. Our answer is that Malema, love him or loathe him, is a significant force (for good or evil, depends on your standpoint) in South African politics.

His tendencies to fascism and to racism often reveal themselves in threatening or incendiary statements against his perceived enemies.

And we need to know about people like him. Forewarned is forearmed.

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