Zimbabweans, and Zanu-PF, are still wondering what to make of Julius Malema after his Easter visit to Zimbabwe.
There was the Julius who fed Zanu-PF what has become its staple: the empowerment rhetoric, the praise for Robert Mugabe and barbs at the whites. This Julius, Zanu-PF loved. But not the Julius that, at every turn, denounced the use of violence and intimidation — another Zanu-PF staple.
Malema arrived in a blaze of glory on Good Friday, met at the airport by the cream of Zanu-PF’s well-heeled Young Turks. Soon, he was in a Mercedes 4×4 owned by Patrick Zhuwao, Mugabe’s nephew.
On Saturday he emerged from his hotel wearing his Mugabe shirt. At Heroes Acre, burial place of Zimbabwe’s war dead, the curator told Malema: “He [Mugabe] is the leader of the flock.”
Then he was at a sports arena, joining the singing, once again, of his favourite song. He stood to speak, saying all the right things. Mugabe was an African revolutionary. Cheers all round. The whites hated him for taking the land. More cheers. South Africa envied Zimbabwe for “going straight for the mines”.
Wilder cheers.
Then he said: “You must be militant; you must be radical; you must be resolute in defence of your organisation.” The wildest cheers so far.
Hang on. “But militancy does not mean cutting people’s heads; it does not mean violence. Militancy means you must be vigilant,” Malema said. “We are critical thinkers; we believe in sitting down and negotiating. Those who think violence is a solution, they do not think.”
Pin-drop silence. Behind Malema two burly members of Mugabe’s youth militia, in olive-green uniforms and sunglasses, stood guard. They looked uneasy and the arena fell silent. It was fun to watch. Criticising violence at Zanu-PF rallies is a bit like going to a dinner and attacking your hosts’ culture and traditions. It’s not done; it creates those awkward silences.
Malema sensed the unease. He explained: “Once we engage in violent means of politics, we run the risk of giving imperialists the reason why they must invade Zimbabwe.”
But the cheers were soon back. If it meant going to jail for singing struggle songs, he was prepared to do so. The South African judiciary and media were still controlled by “white males” who refuse to change.
“It is a sad day that in our own country during democracy, we can no longer sing liberation songs. Do we have to leave South Africa yet again to sing our songs? Do we have to be in Zimbabwe to sing about our struggle and to salute those that died for our liberation? And you say we are in a democracy? What is the difference between what they are doing now and what they did during apartheid?”
A few hours after closing the rally with his favourite song he was again swaying as a band played a jazzy rendition of it at a packed dinner hosted by the Affirmative Action Group, a radical black empowerment outfit.
Same routine: start with the nice stuff. Mineral resources are ours. Most South African journalists are “politically illiterate”. But again: “This rumour we hear about Zanu youths engaging in violence, I have told them it will make Zanu-PF lose elections.” Nervous applause.
There was more. “Minister,” he said, turning to Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere. “We do not want an empowerment policy of cronies and those that are close to the corridors of power.”
Malema’s caution drew only a smattering of nervous applause from the back of the room.
But we were soon back on safe ground as Malema railed against leaders more concerned with financial markets than with “the people”.
Under a marquee at a farm owned by Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono, youths danced, again, to dubula (shoot the boer). Again, Malema called for a fight against the imperialists. Again, he was cheered.
But again the cheers died down when he said: “Violence is not an option. If you lose power tomorrow you need to take two, three steps backwards and strategise and say this is how we are recapturing power.”
And emerging from a meeting with Mugabe, he showered praise on The Leader — while announcing that the ANC Youth League would invite the Zanu-PF Youth League to teach it how to run peaceful campaigns.
At the end of his Zimbabwe trip, Malema had added 20 heifers and a bull to his wealth. Zhuwao said the donation would spur the ANCYL (most of them, it’s safe to say, city slickers) to look for grazing land and therefore realise the need to take land for the black majority.