BOOK REVIEW
The World According to Julilus Malema
Max du Preez and Mandy Rossouw
Kwela

THERE is much to be said for a pithy summary of key, current political issues — in the late eighties, Penguin published its excellent ­forum series — but this offering is a case of publishing anorexia. Its introduction is just 25 pages long, followed by 94 choice quotations from Julius Malema.

Max du Preez and Mandy Rossouw point out that Malema revealed an engaging side when he visited ­Orania, and that he possessed the courage at Nongoma to challenge successfully the unacceptable idea of Inkatha no-go areas. A lack of formal education is no bar to political ­acumen.

The lost generation of the apartheid era would inevitably produce someone of political significance ­and Malema seems to be the man. ­Perhaps his most alarming characteristic is not what he says, and his habit of threatening arson, murder and mayhem, but the fact that his ­entire world-view from childhood has lain with the African National Congress. He has known no other life except the party and street politics. Although he apparently phones his granny daily, his is the sort of background that can breed callous dictators.

His aggressive anti-intellectualism was demonstrated by an unpardonable attack on then Education Minister Naledi Pandor, the only time he has been properly called to ­account by the ANC. Attacks on Helen Zille and comments about rape victims have shown contempt for women.

What exactly is his role within the ANC and what do its leaders really feel about him? Why is he regarded as such a menace to society when a predecessor, Peter Mokaba, made far more specific murderous threats? Context, surely, is a place to start, but unfortunately two top-rank political journalists haven’t seen fit to dig deeper. Instead, we are left with this thought from Mosiuoa Lekota: Malema is a child soldier with a violent, authoritarian streak — “and [people] still want us to think of [him] as a joke?