The World According to Julius Malema: A bold, worthwhile move

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Title: The World According to Julius Malema
Authors: Max du Preez and Mandy Rossouw
ISBN: 9780795702921
Publisher: Kwela Books
Publication date: 2009


The World According to Julius Malema
is a collection of 95 “famous and infamous statements” made by the current president of the ANC Youth League, Julius Malema. Journalists Max du Preez and Mandy Rossouw made a bold move in riding on the popularity wave of this roundly ridiculed, feared, yet powerful young leader by collating and compiling his controversial statements into a 125-page book. The intention of collecting Julius Malema’s quotable quotes seems to have been both to ridicule and to understand what Malema stands for – and it is its immediacy that makes the book worthwhile.

This quick read is divided into two complementary sections. In the first section, which is further divided into four very informative subsections like “The Early Years” and “From Young Lion to Jelly Tsotsi”, Du Preez and Rossouw mostly frame Malema’s 95 statements, trying to determine what it is that makes him tick. In true journalistic fashion the compilers have presented Malema’s statements largely as they were uttered. Only when the compilers feel that the statements would not be readily understood by uninformed readers because of a lack of political knowledge do they provide brief explanatory notes below the statement.

Charting Malema’s meteoritic rise to fame (or infamy) in the foreword, Du Preez and Rossouw emphasise that within a space of less than two years the youthful leader has become “one of the most blogged-about people in Africa” (5). Malema caught South Africa’s political limelight through the controversial statement that shocked many South Africans in June 2008, when he is reported to have said, “Let us make it clear now: We are prepared to die for Zuma. Not only that, we are prepared to take up arms and kill for Zuma” (7). The authors imply that this fanatical outburst did not only set Malema firmly on the road to political prominence, but also provided the context through which Zuma’s presidency may be understood.

Interesting questions, questions which seem to have motivated the compilation of this book, are asked: “Is he simply a buffoon, or is he actually smart? Is he an unguided missile, or is he doing some puppet master’s bidding? ... Is Julius Malema just an interesting individual, or does he represent something bigger in South African Society?” (6).

“The Early Years” is a brief biographical take on Malema. His love of politics is depicted in heroic and comic terms. Childhood mischief is translated into epic revelations of a child who was born to achieve great things. The authors report, for example, that when Malema was only nine years old he ran away from home and got on a bus taking ANC members to Johannesburg to see Nelson Mandela. As the authors put it, “When he returned home the next day, family members say, he was a different boy” (9).

The authors talk of Malema’s inexplicable obsession with the ANC, stating that Malema was only fourteen years old when he became leader of the ANC Youth League in his home town. In all this, the reader cannot miss the hint that Malema is a young man of unstoppable destiny, in addition to the emphasis on Malema’s violent streak.

Malema’s poor academic performance is also mentioned. He failed Grade 8 and had to repeat Grade 9, only matriculating at the age of 21. To cap it all, Malema was elected president during the chaotic conference at Mangaung in Bloemfontein, where one drunken delegate pulled down his pants and flashed “his bare bottom at opponents of Malema’s candidature” (12). In the end, the conference was abandoned before the completion of the proceedings.

“From Young Lion to Jelly Tsotsi” shows not only how Malema’s controversial statements have made him one of the most popular young men in South Africa, but also how his notoriety has come to be emulated by well-known trade union leaders such as Zwelinzima Vavi. The authors also imply that the violent protests that have characterised Zuma’s first year as president are connected to Malema’s outbursts and populists statements. On a more serious note, the authors observe that Malema’s leadership accounted for the significant increase in the number of registered voters, and in the actual votes that the ANC polled in the 2009 elections. The subsection ends on a vilifying note as the authors again foreground Malema’s anti-intellectualism as it is exemplified by his refusal to read newspapers.                          

The second part of The World According to Julius Malema contains Malema’s entertaining, funny and at times completely absurd statements. Each of these quotations is framed or contextualised through a caption which comments on the statement. To Jenny Crwys-Williams of Talk Radio 702, for example, Malema described himself as “an ordinary young person who’s grown up here in South Africa, from a township, who has no intention – none whatsoever – to scare people.”

The captions are very helpful in giving the quotations the necessary background. However, Du Preez and Rossouw could have been more helpful by arranging these statements chronologically or topically. The compilers seem to have been faced with the challenge of getting enough quotable quotations to fill a book of this length. As it is, the actual statements by Malema are so sparse that a tiny quotation of one or two lines is given an entire page. Even a single sentence such as Malema’s words about the irrelevance of academic credentials for one to be in the ANC leadership is given a whole page. Malema is reported to have declared: “You don’t need qualifications to lead the ANC.” Besides being a waste of precious resources, this gives the impression that the two writers did not have enough captivating material about Julius Malema to fill a book.

Despite these shortcomings, The World According to Julius Malema is worth reading, especially by those who have not been following Julius Malema’s controversial political career in the media. Also, for those interested in following South Africa’s complex, unstable yet fascinating post-apartheid politics, this book is a must.

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