There are times when I feel a fatalism, more than mere pessimism, about South Africa. 

After reading about Julius Malema’s exhortation to his followers a few days ago, when he insisted on the necessity of bloodshed to further the aims of his revolution, I thought that maybe we should just let the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) take control of the country. 

Why should we wait for the inevitability of EFF governance 10 or 15 years from now, when we could let them ruin the country now, while there are still people around who do not share his totalitarian desires, and are prepared to clean up the bloody mess that Malema will leave behind? It sounds ridiculous, I know. 

Consider this. If we let the EFF take over state and society, we can have a controlled demolition. There’s not much of the state left, anyway. Let’s just say “fuckit”, hand the government over, and let them ruin everything, because they will do so eventually anyway. It is highly likely that Malema will someday become South Africa’s head of state. 

To abuse a medical term, we can induce a catastrophe so we can actually get rid of a disease or affliction, and thereby ensure that it never returns. Susa Zonke! 

We have to believe, of course, that a managed catastrophe, or a controlled demolition, can lead us to “stable instability” before balance returns; when things can go back to normal and we can return to build a vibrant democracy, shared prosperity, community safety and high levels of trust among South Africans. 

At the moment we are in a constant state of angst, worrying and waiting for the other shoe to drop. And drop, it will. As things stand, Malema and his band of “fighters” are above the law – nobody and nothing can touch them. 

In any democratic society, a blood curdling cry to “kill” a fellow citizen, and exhortations for bloodshed, would be met with legal charges and probably prosecutions. But the state, and the courts, seem too scared of Malema and what he might do to the country – so let’s get it on. 

As we used to say at school, let’s meet in the fields and rumble. 

We spoke in flytaal/tsotsitaal, the patois we spoke in the southwestern townships of Johannesburg back in the days when (or even way before) Malema was a cryptorchidic mystery… 

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Kill for the Revolution

Let’s face it, Malema is a long way down the Mussolini route of duplicity. Early in his fascist leadership, Benito Mussolini showed some deference to political procedures and institutions of the liberal state. This is not unlike Malema’s participation in institutions like Parliament’s committees, or the National Assembly itself. 

But, not unlike Mussolini who participated in public institutions while grooming his Ceka (a secret police established on the model of the Soviet Cheka) to intimidate political opponents, and making veiled threats of violence, Malema, too, makes nice when and where he wants to – while threatening the press, bullying everyone and enjoying a cult following among his band of “fighters”. Who knows what they get up to behind our backs, or when the lights go out…

Last weekend, Malema told his “fighters” their revolutionary duty includes a willingness to kill. 

“You must never be scared to kill. The revolution demands that at some point there must be killing, because the killing is part of the revolution,” Malema said.

We should not fool ourselves: first among the EFF’s constitutional objectives is “to capture political and state power through whatever revolutionary means possible…” 

We know for example that Mussolini’s fascists were waging low-intensity war, mainly terror and sabotage, while he was keeping a smile on his face. He used a blend of persuasion and intimidation, and between 1919 and 1922 he used paramilitary violence to destabilise Italy (I’m not sure whether his fascist brigands destroyed electrical substations), all of which thrived under the perception of a leadership void which Mussolini claimed only he and the Fascists could fill. 

The Italian head of state, King Victor Emmanuel III, was so intimidated by the Fascists that he offered Mussolini the premiership – because he wanted to avoid the inevitable bloodbath. Explained the late Denis Mack Smith, the English historian who specialised in the history of Italy from the Risorgimento onwards:

“Whether or not he made the tourist railways run on time, whether he hindered or encouraged the growth of communism, these may be debatable points; what is undeniable is that he turned his own country into a shambles. Worse, he ended by dividing Italians against themselves in a fierce civil war which it took the statesmanship and good sense of many years to placate. 

“How was he given the power that enabled him to do this? And why was he allowed to govern Italy for twice as long as any other Italian ruler of modern times?”

Play the game until you can change it

We have to remember that the EFF believe they have to play the game until they are in a position to change the rules. Again, this is an echo of the way Mussolini, who, once in office, started undermining the institutions and culture of Italian democracy persistently and methodically. 

He denounced any negative press coverage of himself as “abusive” and “criminal”, and demanded that the offending reporters and editors be fired. In Parliament, he sought to change or completely abolish the constitution because it did not serve his purposes. Outside Parliament, he remained silent or defended his thugs who beat up and abused opposition politicians and journalists.

One (likely) positive thing – perhaps the only positive thing – would be that when Malema gets his way and becomes president, we may see a reduction in the destruction of electricity sub-stations and fewer “breakdowns” in electricity generation…

Besides the necessity of killing for the revolution, the EFF’s “non-negotiables” are the expropriation of South Africa’s land – without compensation – for equal redistribution. Along with these policies, the EFF seek across-the-board nationalisation; people will lose their homes to the state, private enterprises will shut down, and most will be run by the state. 

This nationalisation is first on the list of seven “non-negotiables” that make up “the core program [sic] of the government of the EFF and all its structures outside government at branch, regional, provincial and national level”. 

The EFF constitution declares that the state would provide “free quality education, health care, houses and sanitation”. The state will also protect industries “to create millions of jobs” while “building state and government capacity”. There is no indication as to how revenue will be collected or distributed, but with the EFF in power and in office, we will reach that place of, “Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State.” 

In continuance, then, of my terribly misguided suggestion that we should hand over the government in something like a controlled demolition, what more can go wrong? 

State institutions and agencies have for the most part already been hollowed out, and the bottom is not very far down the trajectory of collapse. Delaying an inevitable EFF government, or at least a President Malema, may bring the country towards violence anyway. 

So let’s just say “fuckit”, forget democracy and constitutionality, and just give them the country before we’re all splattered like dead bugs on the windscreen of the oncoming EFF train.

Why wait 15 to 20 years for the EFF to destroy the country? To turn South Africa into a type of hermit state (like North Korea) where Malema’s picture is the visual reference point in every public space, and his followers, like Mussolini’s black shirts or the white shirts of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (Narendra Modi’s base), are dressed in Po’s red onesies. 

When we get there, everything will be in the state, nothing outside the state, and any objections would be considered counter-revolutionary – a shill for white monopoly capitalism or today’s mythical “stratcom”.

If you study the EFF’s constitution, especially its non-negotiables, and try to find evidence of where the bundle of policies has been successful over time – where it enjoyed support across the board with people free to move in and out of the country, buy and sell private property as they chose – you come up with nothing. 

The only thing we know for sure, is that he has told his people to be prepared to kill… 

So maybe we should bypass the killing stage – let them screw things up, and we can place the country on a progressive trajectory of social stability, cohesion, shared prosperity and high-levels of trust among communities. DM