Julius Malema, the leader of the EFF, has proven once again that the party’s ideology and policy convictions are less important than his own personal feelings.
He is known to make pronouncements and announcements without following existing organisational protocols, and his views become the position of the party.
That is how we describe a dictator. He directly ordered his disciples to cease supporting Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, whom he had previously supported and advocated for as a national police commissioner.
We’ve heard from his former second-in-command, Floyd Shivambu, that he would undermine the party’s position on its controversial immigration policy.
He would completely contradict the official decision of the party and impose his personal feelings through his political statement at rallies, meetings or press conferences.
Malema’s disciples, without ever challenging him, accept instructions unquestioningly – much like soldiers trained to obey the commander’s orders without hesitation.
In the military, obedience is enforced, and any questioning comes only after the order has been carried out.
Julius Malema is not only a gifted orator who knows how to connect with the black majority who are so desperate to have a saviour who could take them out of their abject poverty, but he is also a charming politician who understands the black thought and has found it easier to exploit it when he is pursuing his self-enrichment agenda.
Malema, like many in the ANC, has not fundamentally changed his way of doing politics since his ANC days. He is still cunning, conniving and calculating.
He used the ANC Youth League as an access tool to tenders in the same breath as he is using coalition politics at local government to enrich himself and his family. His disciples, on the other hand, like in any dictatorship, will even die to protect their idol.
It is clear even from the VBS shenanigans that he and Shivambu were central to the looting of the bank belonging to the Venda people, another sad tale of how black politicians are collapsing every good people-led initiative because of their greed.
I was shocked to see the EFF disciples throw away their lives to protect one man, Malema. They have never discussed this scandal through their organisational structures.
It would be unfair to limit the rise of the politics of personalities to just Malema. We have seen how institutions of the state, civil society and ANC members have been exploited just to defend one man, Cyril Ramaphosa.
In the politics of personalities, individuals who are idolised by the masses will never do wrong in the eyes of their followers, even when evidence is presented to prove their guilt. Their followers would rather throw a barrage of attacks, insults and threats.
In a normal society, Ramaphosa was supposed to have been brought to book by his involvement in many corruption scandals, from Bosasa to Phala, but there have been people encouraging and defending him from being held accountable because the love they have for him surpasses that which they have for their country.
In previous politics, which were inspired by sanity, intellect and conscience in the 20th century, we saw men and women who were guided by principles, policies and programmes, not personalities.
Those who left the ANC to form the PAC did not do so because they were charmed by Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, but it was premised on ideological conviction, which altered their political views at that time.
The politics of personalities is inconsistent because human beings are fallible; they make mistakes.
A responsible leader should never surround themselves with blind followers – history has shown that when the blind lead the blind, all are bound to fall.
Malema’s masterful political oratory is carefully crafted to win over the hearts and minds of the majority black communities by instigating their anger over issues affecting them. He knows what to say and wear to win his people over.
He wears red workmen’s overalls when he is in Parliament and cannot wait to change into his Italian designer clothes to visit his controversial friends, including the late Mswazi Msibi and Adriano Mazzotti, in fancy places where his disciples will never reach.
His verbal attack on Mkhwanazi is very suspicious, given the revelations made at the ongoing investigative platforms, such as the Madlanga commission, where he has been implicated in tender schemes in the City of Tshwane.
This tells us that the claim by Shivambu on the EFF being at the forefront of tender corruption has some substance. Those who dismissed Shivambu as a bitter member of the party have got another thing coming. Malema is not who his disciples think he is. The Malema we know is one. He is revolutionary during the day and flashy at night.