7 March 2018
Julius Malema is 37 years old & he is responsible for the fall of Jacob Zuma irrespective of what the media want to tell us. Malema is a controversial character, but I am not here to judge him, but to tell you what he achieved that is not possible in Nigeria.
Julius Malema was the head of the youth wing of the ANC, a very important position in ANC's internal structure. He supported Zuma for a while until there fell out and he was expelled from the party.
Julius & a group of youths from the ANC formed the Economic Freedom Party, a movement that has inherited the Communist branch of the abandoned Tripartite Alliance that fought Apartheid. Julius & his friends have 25 seats in the South African Parliament out of the available 400. In Alliance with the Democratic Alliance(DA), they have robbed ANC of major urban areas such as Durban, Nelson Mandela Bay, Pretoria etc —with DA governing in all these places. You don't have to visit South Africa to know the significance of this, the relationship between the DA/EFP made Ramaphosa & the ANC to recall Zuma, so that they can start preparing for 2019 general elections because their dwindling fortune in urban areas was becoming a major concern.
Malema & the EFP promised South Africans that Zuma was not going to finish his second term, they delivered. He has forced the hands of ANC on the controversial & delicate land expropriation issue, and has warned the Democratic Alliance that they either join the EFP on Land Reform Programme or they would withdraw their support for the DA in key urban areas, a move that would see these places move back into ANC control. The EFP on numerous occasion stopped Zuma from addressing the South African Parliament, reasons being he's being convicted by a Court. In Nigeria, PDP can play all the politics there want about herdsmen & Boko Haram Kidnapping, but they can't do what 25 EFP lawmakers have achieved in South Africa, despite having a higher representation in the centre. Opposition in Nigeria, disagree with the ruling party during day time & get their own piece at night.
It was a combination of vibrant opposition parties, civil societies & South Africa's Judiciary that brought Zuma down- but, the face of this movement was a 37 year old guy, that in Nigeria would have compromised & abandon his comrades either base on ethnicity or "Ghana-Must-Go Bags". This is what opposition politics is about, not in Nigeria that the kid born last year knows there is no single item that separates PDP from APC apart from their names.
For ANC, there would look at Julius Malema the way Chelsea Football Club look @ Kevin DeBruyne & Mohamed Salah(Excuse me if you are not a soccer fan). I keep wondering the day ethnicity, religion, gangsterism & selfishness would allow Nigerian youths to realized the power of our numbers, and what we can achieve if we come together!
Malema did better than Brutus though, he left Zuma 5-years before serving him the soured meal. Julius, even if I don't agree with some of your utterances, I know you are influencing a generation of Africans that truly desire to Serve.
Patrick Unimagbebia Akongwale
Is a Social Commentator
