How to get Malema to work for you

2011-08-29 09:23

Peet van Aardt

So, Julius Malema is to appear before the ANC disciplinary hearing tomorrow on charges of bringing the ANC into disrepute and sowing division.

It is widely speculated that the controversial Youth League leader will be suspended.

A word to the wise: don’t count your tenders before they’re awarded. I don’t see Malema going anywhere.

Yes, he shows disrespect to the rulers. Yes, he questions the key policies which form the base of our  constitution. And yes, often he’s way out of line. In short, he’s an extremely dynamic politician. And a young politician with no real opposition. A gem in the political world!

Jacob Zuma’s record of dealing with these kind of issues teach us he will think thrice before giving Malema and his comrades the boot.

One might be forgiven for criticising the president on his lacklustre leadership and enforcement of discipline, but his political skills are unquestionable.

Zuma needs all the support he can get ahead of 2012, and Malema needs to stay within the party if he doesn’t want to join the club of Former Liberating and Influential Politicians (or ‘Flip’) alongside Mosioua Lekota and Bantu Holomisa.

This disciplinary hearing of the ANCYL leaders is going to be used as an opportunity for reconciliation and a confirmation of Zuma’s position as leader of the ANC. We will see him put the youngsters in their place in an attempt to establish himself as a leader that can enforce the ANC’s rules, contrary to the media’s belief. This way he also makes sure some questions from his past doesn’t get thrown into the limelight.

On Malema’s side of things, he will have to swallow a bit of pride, but what better way to display your humility and worthiness of an organisation with such a large following such as the ANC? In the future we will hear how much he had learned during this process and how he embraced the party’s fundamentals.

At a gala dinner for young women in Centurion on Friday he had already started saying the right things. Why would the party divide itself when all it needs to do is keep their best boxers in the same corner? And this will be done through political resolution, as they call it.

For many people the mere possibility that Malema might be involved in fraudulent activities means that he’s not fit to be in politics. But politicians with business connections is a phenomenon as old as business people with political links.

We cannot expect Malema or anyone in the ANC to take the Helen Zille approach, where she stated that she would step down if her party is found guilty of corruption. Because that is the Western approach to handling politics in public: ‘Reg of weg.’

The ANC’s strength is not its record of good governance. They pride themselves on their culture. South Africa is not the West. This is Africa, and we have to accept it. Instead of reprimanding their youngsters according to a set of rules, the president will take him under his wing and teach him the ‘right ways’. This is how things have been done in the past, and probably will continue to be done.

We sometimes look at the events in the ruling party’s leadership as a kind of Amazing Race to 2012; where some participants who don’t play according to the rules will have to fall out. Others see it as Survivor: Polokwane.

Will the torch of Malema – or even Zuma – be put out? 

No.

They’ll both survive and be stronger as a result. So will the ANC’s public image, because the message will go out that ‘We, as the rulers of this country, believe in working together. We have taken this young leader, and we’ve seen the potential. We’ve mined a rough diamond, and we’re going to polish him..’

And before you can say ‘Botswana’, we’ll find the ANC followers will love them for it.

And that’s how you make Julius Malema work for you.
 

Peet van Aardt is News24's Community Editor. Follow him on Twitter.

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