Julius Malema may bring the ANC back to the emancipatory impulse that inspired the liberation movement, but he flatters to deceive precisely at a point when black leadership is in desperate need of revitalisation.

Julius Malema's political career has been through so many turning points, ups and downs, peaks and valleys that he might need medication for motion-sickness. Yet (more seriously), through it all, Malema's oration, interventions, disruptions, his uncompromising political stances and militancy have not changed. The man is, at least, consistent.

From the moment when he rushed the podium and "pushed aside" elders at an ANC gathering in Durban in 1991, Malema has been "a problem" for the ANC. It was decided, then, that Malema would benefit from political education and training in diplomacy and protocol. A respected leader of the ANC was given the task, but she failed to see it through...

This "problem" did not go away after Malema was expelled from the ANC in 2012. He simply took his voice and vituperation to the streets, formed the Economic Freedom Fighters, and got something akin to a type of "new manager bounce". The EFF got 11.36% of the vote in the general election of 2019, and dropped to 9.52% of the vote in 2024.

A small but dedicated group of intellectuals who voted for Malema in 2019 recognised that he did not quite live up to the...