Young leaders have an opportunity to shape the psyche of the society, especially if they are revolutionary, inspirational and quotable.
Young leaders must shape and determine the future thinking of society by heavily influencing the current societal practices. These leaders must build a foundation of unity, thereby encouraging young people to start being comfortable with the idea of a non-racial and non-sexist society.
However, this leaders must desist from thinking that they can change the way the media do things, they must know that, the media has its own role to play and they must take full advantage of the media, by ensuring that they are creative and innovative enough to ensure that the positive message that they preach gets to the broader public.
I know that youth leaders across political formations do a lot of work out there. But most of their work is not to the level of media interest and the country misses the great ideas and influence they could have on them.
I'm tempted to say that due to this, youth political leaders are in fact absent from the public discourse. And in fact, when they image in public is due to the internal political party squabbles. This in fact, damages the image of these political parties and portrays them as self interested leaders who do not necessarily care about the challenges that the society is experiencing.
Enter, Julius Malema. In my view, Julius Malema's way of seeing the world is extremely backward. He articulates issues as if he is an individual who lived in the Stone Age. I have argued this particular point with some of my colleagues and they tell me that Malema's off-the-mark ranting is intentional and his main aim is to play to the media. They claim that Malema is in fact very intelligent. I have listened to the calm Malema on talk radio 702 being interviewed by John Robbie and he sounded OK. However I was not fooled.
If then, Malema is this intelligent guy, what does he feed the ordinary people Junk in his public speeches. He concluded that our people deserve to be fed Junk? If so, why would Malema think that people he is fighting for deserves to be fed Junk? Or is he saying what he thinks people want to hear?
It's clear that Malema's ranting lacks vision and are mostly motivated by the desire to hold on to power at whatever the cost. He will do so, even if it means corrupting the thinking of the society.
I have come to a conclusion that Malema's message works on people's fears, their despondency and the fact that they have become helpless and do not know what has brought them to that place.
The most powerful instrument Malema has is the fact that he is always present in the public discourse. He has no competition. He has being given a monopoly of youth politics. There is only one leader in the youth politics that you will read about in your news papers when you wake up tomorrow and that is Julius Malema. His presence alone can end up making him very powerful in the eyes of ordinary people. He tackles issues and gives South Africans an opportunity to react to that.
Of course he is reckless: Threatening Nedbank, calling for the nationalization of the mines. I felt sorry for Mr Cas Coovadia, MD of the Banking Association of South Africa, when he had to respond to Malema himself. As an elder he did not have to lower himself to Malema's level. But due to the fact that the alternative voice in the youth politics is silent, he had to. He had no choice but to protect the banking sector.
Note that, when Malema is in the public domain, it is not about ANCYL members calling for his head, he is in the media stumbling on issues of national interest. This is Malema's second most powerful instrument. And that is why the ANCYL supports him unconditionally. There are a lot of people in ANCYL who do not like Malema's ranting. However, they respect him as their leader and have shelved their own ambitions to become ANCYL president. This creates stability in the ANCYL and gives Malema a chance to do deal with issues of public interest.
Malema has being asked to retract statements ranging from accusing an ANC elder of having a fake accent to asking the minister of public enterprise to know her place in the ANC. He has said everything that shouldn't be said. He has treated his neighbours in the way that they should not be treated and he has used our roads the way he likes, claiming to know nothing about driving. He has the space to do whatever he wants; he is not scared of being expelled. This is Malema's third most powerful instrument. He can say or do whatever he wants and the best punishment he will get is to be asked to retract the statement.
In short, Malema is free to speak; he is free to be young. His attitude makes JZ look extremely intelligent. You can clearly identify Malema as a child and Zuma as an Elder.
What stops other political youth formation from speaking freely, but speaking sense? I have a feeling that Malemania is one of the diseases that youth political formation suffers from. The eager never to sound like Malema has made most of them Elders in young bodies, thereby repelling the Media.
The other factor is the close watch by their Mother bodies, who fear that this youth leaders might go out of control like Malema and become more powerful than the main political formation. So they are required to be the good boys and girls and this attitude repels the Media and does not appeal to the broader masses. The suspension of FF+ youth leader in this instance is a good example of opposition youth leadership being silenced.
The reality is that if you cannot be allowed the freedom to criticize your own organization your views become predictable and lack integrity.
Some youth leader needs to stand up and feed us some sense in a revolutionary and progressive manner. Some young leader must come out and silence Malema; some young leader must claim their deserved share in the public domain. This young leader must ensure that his/her quality of leadership makes people shun ANCYL radio or ANCYL TV if there is anyone in the pipeline
It is time for young leaders to occupy their deserved space in the public domain. Their occupation of the space must however, not focus on party political power plays, but on the issues affecting young people in South Africa. These young leaders must inspire confidence in all young people in South Africa regardless of Race and Gender. They must protect the integrity of our elderly and protect our economic environment from the recklessness of the Malemas.
These young leaders must be let free to speak and they must be mentored. They must be allowed to make mistakes and learn from them.
They must let go of the Malemania
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