Malema’s stunt nothing more than populist rabble-rouser

Politics, we know by now, is the art of telling everyone what they want to hear and changing your tune to suit your audience.

Yet, even by the “standards” of that inglorious occupation, Julius Malema has set new benchmarks for flip-flopping.
He was an evangelical pan-Africanist, promoting open borders and attacking those calling for tighter immigration control in South Africa for being “xenophobic” … yet he is now on his new campaign of “jobs for South Africans”.

It’s not difficult to understand this apparent mindshift. Firstly, Malema is not an ideologue; he is an opportunist, so anything which can provide him with a political advantage will be grasped at with alacrity.

Secondly, his Economic Freedom Fighters’ (EFF) manifest failure to conquer the commanding heights of government in this country is due, in large part, to his being seen in the townships as “pro-foreigner”.

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In an attempt to jump on the bandwagon of xenophobia (or at the least the growing concern at the number
of illegal foreigners in this country) – and perhaps win back some votes in future – the “commander-in-chief” deployed himself and his fighters to restaurants, demanding to know how many foreigners they employ.

In the process, he and his comrades blatantly intimidated some business owners into meeting them – under the pretence of carrying out a “parliamentary oversight visit” – and then forced some to possibly even break the Protection of Private Information Act by sharing the information of their workers.

Those who refused to play ball with the EFF storm troopers, were subtly threatened. It did not take much to remind restaurateurs that the organisation’s thugs could cause considerable disruption and physical damages to their business, as happened with Clicks.

This is nothing more than populist rabble-rousing which has, sadly, become commonplace in this country. Will it stop? Don’t hold your breath.