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Julius Malema – Symbol of Change View 50 comments | Comment on this story By: _PAULM 2012-07-20 12:58 I write this article with a clear conscience, equally aware of the wide range criticism I will receive amongst those I share certain views with. Neither the less here goes… Julius Sello Malema represents a lot of things to a lot of people, there are those that look at him and they see the President of the ANC YL, The Commander in Chief of the Economic Freedom Fighters, The Radical and Militant product of the Congress of South African Students and certainly those who see him as their ticket to multi million Rands. It is not a secret that there are those who look at him and see Rebellion, Arrogance, a Dictator and an Autocrat and those that will say he is the embodiment of ill-discipline. How ever at some point we need to take a minute and put our feelings aside, put our opinions or allegiances aside and have an honest and unbiased look at the man in the center of it all. His name is Julius Sello Malema Julius like any other young person in South Africa who comes from the disadvantaged background that is a product of Apartheid is not immune to the struggle of the people, it is equally true that Julius like any other young person in South Africa is not immune to the poverty that has besieged our people perpetuated by policies that are continuing to protect the legacy of Apartheid. How ever this does not justify nor absolve him above any alleged wrong doing against the very people he represents or the organization he so dearly loves. With that said, it is then important to look at the circumstances that surround Cde Julius not from a sympathetic or a judgmental point of view, but from an honest and principled point of view. Cde Julius Sello Malema represents change; he has become a symbol of change and whether we like it or not as members of the ANC or as the civil society. The truth remains Julius Sello Malema has managed in his short stint in the helm of South African politics to achieve what many of the ANC Leaders have wished to achieve in their entire lives. Cde Julius Malema has managed to galvanize, organize and inspire our people. Julius Malema with his call for Economic Freedom in our Life time has done the extra ordinary, he has managed to remind society of the fact that their journey to total liberation from the bondages of Apartheid is far from over although many within the movement and outside would rather have him silent on a number of the things he has raised in line with this clarion call. Secondly he has dared the ANC to remember its commitment to the people, and has forced the liberation movement to renew its commitment to leading our people to the Promised Land and like Joshua he has dared all to lead our people to the promise we gave them in 1994 and before. Whether we agree or not with his rather unorthodox manner of doing things, how ever we all agree on the critical aspects he raises with regards to our journey to total emancipation of our people and the return or redistribution of land to fully represent the true demographics of our country. In speaking truth to power, he has rattled even those cages of the capitalist worlds that thought through the fall of the many Communists states around the world that they could not be touched. As they hid behind the rhetoric of a maturing democracy and rainbow nation while they continued to loot the natural resources of our country without a care for the destitute and impoverished children they leave behind. Many will come with their well researched theories to refute this article and they will come with their masters and Doctorates to rubbish this perspective. But the truth remains; Comrade Julius Malema has certainly become the voice of the voiceless and the champion of the poor. Many might claim that he using the poor on his crusade to riches and this I say it’s far from the truth. The truth is that the worst enemy of the poor is those that claim to represent the poor without saying anything to inspire nor promote them, hiding behind some old government legislation and conveniently forgetting that we are the ruling party in majority tasked with the responsibility of reversing the legacy of Apartheid. Many would want to see the demise of Julius Malema as the President of the ANC YL and others will go to the extremes in ensuring that this becomes a reality, but then a question needs to be asked “at who’s interest is the demise of Cde Julius Sello Malema?” Is it in the interest of the Millions of young people of South Africa who are unemployed while the economy is in the hands of the minority? Is it in the interest of the millions of South Africans who do not have a proper place to call home because their ancestral land was stolen from their forefathers by the brutal Apartheid regime? At whose interest is the silencing of Comrade Julius Malema? I should confess that many will be surprised at my penning of this particular article, but yet there comes a time in the life of any man that he may sit back and take an honest look at the state of affairs and ask “when this happened what was my contribution to it?” Julius Malema is the child of the ANC, born bred and buttered in the ANC. He is the product of the struggle and the unpolished gem of the African National Congress. From a very young age he knows no life outside the ANC and like any other child of the ANC he knows no other home other than the ANC. It is in this regard that from a very young age, he had dedicated his life to the movement, a trail blazer and a militant cadre of the movement. No one in the Congress movement can forget the impact that Julius Malema had in the education system of our country, he might not had those straight A’s in his matric year, but most conveniently forget that this was as a result of the sacrifice he had made to ensure that his education is compromised for the benefit of the Thousands of students across the country whom he carried in his shoulders as the President of the Congress of South African Students Julius Malema is no stranger to sacrificing his reputation for the greater good of society an attribute many of our leaders lack, we are not defenders of his lifestyle nor his opulence but certainly we have a responsibility of protecting the beacon of hope for our people and the torch that has sacrificed its guaranteed future by challenging the status quo for the benefit of the poor of the poor. Ideologically many have differed with Julius, yet many in their silent little corners cant turn a blind eye to the role this young man has played in shaping the political landscape of our country, with his contribution to the struggle the playing fields have been leveled to a certain degree and it is up to us to protect the gains made in the era of the forever eloquent Julius Sello Malema, controversial as he may be, arrogant as he may be. He has done all these things even against his beloved movement so that we can have a voice in the direction our organization is taking and secondly where our country is going. Sello Julius Malema a member of the African National Congress, should at all times through his ideas and his convictions remain relevant amongst all young people of our country. The debate has started; let your voice be heard. Whether you agree with him or not, he has offered you an opportunity to voice your thoughts. He has revived the youth of South Africa to safeguard their country, their movement and their future by exercising their right to be vibrant, their right to be vocal and their right to be in charge of their Economic liberation. Whatever the future holds for Cde Julius Sello Malema one thing is for sure, The ANC will never be the same. Whether his ideas emerge in the Policy Conference leading to Mangaung, the truth is that the ANC will never be the same. Beyond Mangaung the ANC and the country will never be the same, Julius has led from the front and he has written the introduction chapter in the new book of our movement and that of the country, it is now up to me and you to write the entire book and dictate what its conclusion will be. This is a tribute to one of the very vibrant and courageous leader of the ANC YL, a loyal member of the African National Congress and the product of the Congress Movement. The young Lion of the North The Commander in Chief of the Economic Freedom Fighters The President of the African National Congress Youth League Comrade Julius Sello Malema, El Presidante http://m.news24.com/news24/MyNews24/Julius-S-Malema-The-Symbol-of-Change-20120720 Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] Sender: [email protected] Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2012 18:13:15 To: <[email protected]> Reply-To: [email protected] Subject: [YCLSA Discussion] MALEMA RESPONCE TO GWEDE MANTASHE RESPONSE TO GWEDE MANTASHE Julius Malema 20 July 2012 The Secretary General of the ANC Gwede Mantashe is quoted on Friday, 20 July 2012 Sowetan as having said that what Mama Winnie Madikizela Mandela is doing is dangerous for the organisation. He said “She has taken a decision to go against the ANC national executive committee's (position) on Julius. She has decided to oppose the decision”. This he said in reference to the fact that Mama Winnie Mandela and her family partook on charitable activities in honour of President Nelson Mandela’s 94th Birthday alongside the leadership of the ANC Youth League, which the faction that Gwede Mantashe belongs to has suspended/expelled from the ANC. Gwede Mantashe went as far as suggesting that the Veteran of our struggle and renowned Freedom Fighter, Mama Winnie Madikizela Mandela is ill-disciplined for appreciating our efforts and decisive political programme for economic freedom on our lifetime. It was and is within Mama Madikizela Mandela’s right to appreciate the struggle for economic freedom in our lifetime and for saying, “Thank you very much for leading that campaign because it is as a result of your emphasis, the youth league's emphasis on the role we should be playing as freedom fighters”. We are certain that Gwede Mantashe is aware that his conduct and utterances about Mama are out-rightly out of order and childish. It is within Mama Winnie Mandela’s right to associate with leadership of the youth in South Africa and it is within her right to endorse and appreciate the struggle for economic freedom as led by this generation of youth leaders. Mama Winnie Mandela is not the first and will never be the last of ANC leaders and members who will openly associate and publicly endorse what the leadership Gwede Mantashe’s faction suspended/expelled from the ANC. On various occasions and in various regions of the ANC, thousands of genuine members and leaders of the ANC have openly associated, engaged and exchanged notes with the leadership of the ANC Youth League, which Gwede and company have suspended because of his insecurity. We are not shocked that it is Gwede Mantashe who speaks about Veterans of the ANC in the media like he did because we have always said that he does not know and he does not understand the ANC. Gwede Mantashe never grew in the ANC, was never in the underground movement, was never involved in any operation against the apartheid regime, was never arrested and never went to exile like all Freedom Fighters his age did. It took us only 6 months from the ANC 52nd National Conference to notice that Gwede Mantashe does not know and does not understand the ANC. That is the main reason why we called for his replacement from leadership of the ANC as early as 2008 because we knew he is a disaster waiting to happen. As National Organiser of the ANC, Cde Fikile Mbalula had to strategically and programmatically lead the elections campaign in 2009 because there was absence of leadership from Gwede Mantashe. In the 2011 Local Government Elections, Mantashe tried to lead the election campaign and caused disaster with selection of candidates and poor management of elections processes leading to the decline of votes for the ANC in those elections. The ANC is more divided and more organisationally mixed up with parallel structures and conferences because of Gwede Mantashe whose only knowledge is to insult and undermine Veterans of the ANC. This culture of undermining Veterans of the ANC seems to be the new style of leadership in the ANC, because since the National Policy Conference where President Jacob Zuma chided Veterans in his opening remarks, there is now a sudden excitement to undermine Veterans of the ANC. The Spokesperson of the ANC, who is a self-confessed alcoholic, recently questioned the sanity of the ANC Veterans League for raising genuine issue of self-enrichment by some amongst the leaders of the ANC at the expense of service delivery. What kind of a Movement is this that disregards, chides, and undermines the youth and the Veterans? We call on all ANC members to now begin to acknowledge that the some of the leaders elected in the 52nd National Conference, particularly Gwede Mantashe and Jacob Zuma were a huge blunder to the ANC and South Africa as a whole. The ANC should sooner rescue itself from these factionalists who time and again use official structures of the ANC to legitimise their factional decisions aimed at securing them re-election in the 53rd National Conference. Gwede Mantashe and company should get used to the reality that as activists of the ANC and as Economic Freedom Fighters we will continue to engage and associate with all people in society and in all corners of South Africa and the world. The fact that renowned leaders of the ANC and an absolute majority of ANC members are not ashamed to associate with us is a confirmation that the faction’s decision to isolate us from the ANC does not enjoy legitimacy on the ground. Gwede Mantashe is the one who is dangerous to the ANC, not Mama Winnie Madikizela Mandela, and he should ask those who undermined Mama Winnie Mandela is public and tried to reduce her to a non-entity—where are they today? People who staff-ride the ANC should always be cautious on what they say about Veterans of the ANC, because they will fall very hard. ISSUED BY CDE JULIUS MALEMA—ANC Youth League President Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
