An article in The Times of London last week was headlined Gadaffi is a Clown, but No One is Laughing. It was written by that splendid Iranian-in-exile commentator Amir Taheri. The same might be said about Julius Malema - he is the ANC's clown, but no one is laughing. From time to time, an ANC elder delivers a mild rebuke, or President Zuma says Malema is "young and still learning". But Malema bounces back with the next outrageous remark. The latest Malemaism is that the "economic cluster" in the cabinet is ethnically unbalanced. As president of the ANC Youth League he warns that future appointments must comply with official guidelines on "demographic representivity": employment in both the government and private sectors in proportion to ethnic populations.
At present, Finance (minister Pravin Gordhan), Economic Development (Ebrahim Patel), Trade and Industry (Rob Davies), Public Enterprises (Barbara Hogan) and Gill Marcus (new Reserve Bank governor) are "minorities," meaning they are Indians and whites (coloureds no doubt are also a "minority"): Africans should have been appointed to their places. Malema does not say whether, if Africans take over, they will apply the same policies as the "minorities" or, instead, accelerate "transformation."
Malema pronounces: "We, black people cannot just be reduced to security while the very important issue of the economy is given to minorities. Minister of Police (Nathi Mthethwa), minister of Intelligence (Siyabonga Cwele), minister of Justice (Jeff Radebe) - they are all Africans. But in the economic cluster, its minorities."
Singling out Marcus, Malema says that while she is perfectly competent for her job, but "the youth will think, because Marcus is white, they (whites) are born like that - there's no way I (an African) can be like that." A statement by the ANC Youth League backs Malema: "...the principle of African leadership should not be compromised when future appointments are made, as that could play into a racist perception that Africans are incapable to perform key economic roles in government and corporate sector." The ANCYL does not want a cabinet reshuffle, but in future appointments the "principle of African leadership" must prevail.
It will be noted that the ANCYL statement groups the corporate sector with the ministries, confirming reports that a new squeeze is to be put on the private sector to conform to "demographic representivity". Africans number 37m of the total 47m South African population, and at present 61% of government employees are African, which one would have thought is satisfactory for the present, seeing that it just about touches the 66% polled by the ANC in the April 22 general elections.
Both the minister of Labour (Membathisisi Mdladlana) and the chairman of the Commission for Employment Equity (Jimmy Manyi) lashed out on Monday: "Those who are not playing the ball we will name and shame (Manyi), and "Comply with the law instead of manufacturing a revolution...the revolution will be a revolution of all black people" (Mdlalana). At present, says Mdlalana, the law is "very forgiving," but now there will be many more prosecutions and fines will be escalated, possibly to 10% of a company's turnover. The fault lines between the ANC's business and labour policies emerge with stark visibility here. For a cabinet minister to threaten a "black revolution" is outright racism. What ius he doing in Zuma's new cabinet?