Malema’s comments on Zim elections out-of-order

Dr Masimba Mavaza
South African opposition figure Julius Malema this week came out on eNCA TV news calling for Zimbabweans to go back to Zimbabwe and vote the government out.

Malema’s interest in Zimbabwe’s elections is a result of his intimate association with former Zanu PF political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere, who is in self-imposed exile in South Africa.

He seems to be taking instructions from Kasukuwere.

Why is Malema behaving like this?
In most cases, Malema is living his name. In Zulu and Ndebele “Malema” is the word for “Marema” in Shona.

This does not mean a person suffering from mental health illness, but means a person of crazy and mad behaviour who cannot order his faculties well in relating to others.

Malema has wandered way offline in his spits.
It is a shame that Malema rushed to comment before he understands what is happening.

Malema is an opposition leader in South Africa, not in Zimbabwe or Africa, for that matter.

His self-styled posture as a Pan-African opposition leader is as delusional as his undiplomatic and obscene interference in internal affairs of another sovereign state.

Malema’s actions are pervasive and totally uncalled for.

He starts well by encouraging Zimbabweans to go home and vote, but his lunacy is exposed when he starts calling leaders in Zimbabwe with bad names.

Malema should understand that voting issues are a complex internal and constitutional matter.

Presently, those Zimbabweans in the diaspora have no right to vote from outside the borders, save for those on external duties.

Malema must know that this position can only be changed by Zimbabweans not by an over-exuberant howling foreign opposition leader.

He is afflicted with the fallacious thinking and weird assumption that Zimbabweans in the disspora in voting will vote against their government and for the opposition.

Zimbabweans in the Diaspora are patriotic. Being in the diaspora, one begins to appreciate his/her country.

It is only when you are abroad that the environment teaches you to love your nation.
These Zimbabweans are part of a big family back home.

It is more logical to think that the voting pattern at home will find reflection in the diaspora.
Zanu PF has been winning elections for decades and that is the pattern at home.

There is no reason to surmise that the same voters will cross a stream into South Africa and then change political allegiance.

Malema has failed to make significant inroads in his own country as an opposition leader.

While the ruling African National Congress has lost seats in recent elections, Malema’s party has not gained significantly.

This is because whatever the ANC has lost, that has been shared between Malema’s EFF and the other opposition party, the DA.

Malema can sense that his party is not likely to wrestle power from the ANC in the next elections.

He must concentrate on coming up with a cogent programme of attracting his own countrymen as voters in South Africa.

Imbecile speeches and rowdy behaviour in Parliament all these years have not had any electoral impact for Malema at all.

Another factor in Malema’s mind is clearly the challenges in his own country. An opposition leader devoid of ideas to improve his country is not worth anything.

If Malema wants to do something meaningful for Zimbabweans living in his country, he must join them in the fight for dignity in that country: fight for the right to life of the Zimbabweans who are being targeted by hooligans.

He must address his compatriots to eradicate xenophobia, prejudice and vigilantism.

Malema must seriously engage the Government of South Africa and all stakeholders to find a solution to the most pressing need of the Zimbabweans in that country, which is the need for protection.

For Malema to ignore the single most pressing issue of protection of life of the Zimbabweans in South Africa is not just a cynical diversion, but an insult to Zimbabweans living there.

Malema’s thinking about Zimbabweans in South Africa and elections is flawed and tainted with insults which are not called for.

Zimbabwe is not reneging on the gains of independence and Zimbabweans are not against their government.

It is Zanu PF which mobilised Zimbabweans to pick up arms and go to a war. The war for our freedom was not a racist war.

After independence, whites were allowed to stay in the country and great policy of reconciliation was announced by the majority government.

Zimbabwe has been riddled by illegal sanctions imposed by the West, but Malema pretends to be blind to that.

Zimbabweans in Diaspora are not all against Zanu PF, so Malema must start respecting his neighbours.

He has no right whatsoever to issue campaign statements against Zanu PF as if he the political commissar of a Zimbabwean opposition outfit.