inside politics

James Joyce said, “I am tomorrow, or some future day, what I establish today. I am today what I established yesterday or some previous day.” When it comes to the EFF, however, it is hard to tell whether its revolution is being established, was established or has yet to be established.

The EFF’s 11 wasted years

By: Gareth van Onselen
Follow @GvanOnselen
24 July 2024

We live in an age of great revolution, so the story goes. Out there, away from the delights of urban decay, among the people, something is brewing. The vanguard of this revolution, the Economic Freedom Fighters – led by Julius Malema – are hard at work among the proletariat. “The revolution is now”, says Malema. Or at least, that is what he said in December 2014, shortly after the EFF was first forged in fire and brimstone. Presumably, it is still raging.

It is, in many respects, a timeless revolution. It has no discernible beginning, thus no middle and certainly no prospect of an end. Sometimes it is hard to tell if it has even begun. It is both permanent and pending, and permanently pending. The fact that it is invisible too, makes it an all the more terrifying prospect/reality.

If “the land” is not returned back to black South Africans, Malema says‚ “there will be a revolution in this country.” A revolution, “is guaranteed”. And, “when the unled revolution comes… the first target is going to be white people.” To this end, he advises the faithful, “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”.

This is perhaps another revolution Malema is talking about. If his doesn’t go according to plan. An “unled” revolution, the worst kind. Whether this idea is more or less horrifying than the current, “led”, revolution is debatable. A paradox, because we don’t know how the current revolution is going. Only, that it is going. And it is being led.

There is a third revolution: The ANC’s revolution – the National Democratic Revolution. Democratic revolutions are unique, and deceptive. On paper, they look like democracy. They result in negotiations, and give birth to constitutions, elections and governments of national unity. The vanguard transforms into a cabinet. And the revolution? It is still there we are told, between the lines of policies argued for and against in parliament and committees by public representatives. 

The thing that sets the modern South African revolutionary aside, is their ability to see all these invisible revolutions. Mortal men cannot. We are lucky indeed to have amongst us so many revolutionary Soothsayers. To explain revolutions past, to interpret revolutions today and to predict revolutions to come. And who, exactly is running the revolutionary show.

“There is nothing revolutionary about the ANC”, said Floyd Shivambu in 2014. The EFF says that particular revolution is over. In the vacuum, it is now the keeper of the revolutionary flame. 

Most revolutions – the traditional ones – are relatively easy to identify. Typically, it is the widespread, orchestrated and brutal violence that tells you something is afoot. For the EFF, there is much talk of revolutionary violence but little actual revolutionary slaughter. 

This precedent was set early on. At the EFF’s launch, a couple of genuine revolutionaries in the Cuban mould – but from Katlehong – no doubt excited by the idea that there was now the prospect of a real revolution, made a banner proudly conveying Che Guevara’s immortal words, “A revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate”.

The EFF, however, was quick to say, “This is not to advocate for killing of people but rather equality.” 

Doubtless, a disappointing response for the Katlehong Branch. Another banner read, “We need to kill them like they killed us”. Never before has the idea of equality been so well articulated. 

Thus, understandably, Malema has spent a lot of time in the actual Equality Court since then, as his other calls for equality – “Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer”, “Cut the throat of whiteness” and his suggestion that “We are not calling for the slaughtering of white people, at least for now” – all ultimately got the green light. If nothing else the EFF has revolutionised the idea of equality.

It is unclear why Malema fights the endless stream of charges against him. Some time in jail would do his revolutionary credentials the world of good. It’s almost a rite of passage for traditional revolutionary leaders. Not Malema though, his sacrifice is primarily on Twitter. 

But none of it, however, has really been appreciated by the proletariat. It is a risk for a revolutionary movement to stand in elections. Lenin, for example, had the following to say about that approach.

 “The dictatorship of the proletariat means the overthrow of the bourgeoisie by a single class, the proletariat, and by its revolutionary vanguard at that. To demand that this vanguard should first ensure the support of the majority of the people through elections to bourgeois parliament, bourgeois constituent assemblies, etc., i.e., by elections held while wage-slavery stilt exists, while the exploiters exist and exercise their oppression, and while the means of production are privately owned — to demand this or to assume it is actually abandoning the standpoint of the dictatorship of the proletariat and going over to the standpoint of bourgeois democracy.”

The EFF chose a different revolutionary path. The problem with that, however, is that you can actually measure its revolutionary success. As of 2024, it is 9.5% successful. And going backwards. Lenin would say it now stands with the bourgeoise. But what did he know about revolution? The EFF wants to be elected into government. Unlike the Bolsheviks, who worried mostly about in what order to cut off the heads of state bureaucrats, Malema says, “We will accept any outcome of the elections”. 

It is a strange revolution that is bound by and deferential to the IEC. But these are strange times.

What the EFF will ever do if it does get into government is difficult to say. It has a lot of policies. Most of them make a bloody revolution look preferable. No doubt inspired by Guevara, Malema has proposed Shivambu as Minister of Finance. 

At the height of his formal power, post-revolution, Guevara was simultaneously the Minister of Finance, the President of the National Bank and the Minister of Industries. He earned it the hard way. As one of the tribunal heads, he personally oversaw the execution of many Batista loyalists, as he was charged with purging the vanquished enemy forces. Shivambu once shoved a journalist. Not that violence is a prerequisite for finance prudence, just to say you get the sense Guevara was a bit more invested in outcomes. 

The EFF has been around for 11 years now. 11 long, and largely fruitless revolutionary years. In that time, more or less, the Bolsheviks had dismantled, redefined and expanded Russia; Castro and the 26 July Movement had brought Cuba to its knees. Pol Pot turned the clock back in Cambodia about 100 years in a decade.

Malema seems to have conceded things are going slow. His new favourite revolutionary cliche is that the EFF’s project is a “generational” one. Passed down by word of mouth, from father to son, it will live on the whispered legends of old: How the EFF once persistently interrupted a debate in parliament on a “point of procedure”, or that time it got really upset about a shampoo commercial.

You can see why language so important to the EFF. It is all it has. It is why it thrives on social media, the revolutionary battleground, where words are meaningless but simultaneously the truth. 

The EFF in the Northern Cape recently tweeted, with much pride and an accompanying photograph, “Revolutionary Bakkies has (sic) arrived in the Province, mobilization towards 27th July 2024 will intensify as EFF will be hosting 11th Anniversary Rally in Kimberley Ar Abass Sports Ground.”

Castro would have put those to a different use. Pol Pot would have burned them as a metaphor for modernity. “Mobilisation will intensify”. If Lenin said that, it wouldn’t be the size of the festivities you would worry about. The language of any real revolution has, underpinning it, an actual revolution. Ultimately violence. For the EFF, the idea is just a toy, to be played with. It’s marketing more than ideology. What advertisers call branding. 

And death is ultimate commodity in revolutionary brand equity – another timeless trope. Malema is the ultimate brand ambassador for it: 

“Not even death can stop me”, “Kill me, kill me for what I represent; those should be the last words when you die as a revolutionary”; “They will find me ready; in fact, if they kill me; they will not kill the idea”; “In their minds they think they have already killed me”; “When you are scared to die, you must know you are equally as dead”, “I’m not scared of death. I don’t know why I’m still alive, I died a long time ago”; “We are either going to die, or we are going to win.”

Christ had nothing on Malema. He is not scared of death, he is dead, he was dead, he cannot be killed, and he wants to die. And to die for so many things, for Jacob Zuma, for the ANC, the revolution, for his ideas, the people. He even once said, “We’re prepared to die for protection of the Constitution”. Probably a slip of the tongue.

The only thing missing is some actual revolutionary situation, where death is even the remotest possibility. Some real battle. With something really at stake. He would plunge right in, so keen is he to live on forever. Alas, he cannot find an opportunity. Or produce one. Indeed, for someone so familiar with the Grim Reaper, he seems to keep a fair bit of distance between himself and the battlefield proper. But, as they say, it is the thought that counts.

The same applies to killing others – the point of not being scared when you think about it from a revolutionary perspective. “I am not scared of killing,” Malema says, “A revolutionary is a walking killing machine. If a need arises I will kill, especially in defence of my people”. The man really cares about equality. “The Equalizer”? Regardless, the need has not arisen. 

Not yet. But it is coming, the story goes. And Malema has been practicing, as he told the East London Regional Court recently, where he is appearing on a charge of discharging a firearm. His was a toy. A toy gun, for a toy revolutionary, leading a toy store revolution. 

You feel for the proletariat. There must be a few brave real revolutionaries out there. On 26 July 1953 Fidel Castro led a group of just 136 rebels in his attack on the Moncada military barracks. It failed in the short term but started the Cuban revolution. Can’t see Malema leading anything like that, requires a bit more than words, and 136 people. But he and his wife did make for an adorable couple as they posed for photos at the Durban July.

Lenin once said, “I can’t listen to music too often. It affects your nerves, makes you want to say stupid nice things and stroke the heads of people who could create such beauty while living in this vile hell”. Celebrating the wedding of alleged cigarette smuggler Adriano Mazzotti’s daughter, in Ibiza Spain, DJ Malema took to the decks in 2022. The Times reported, “The red beret leader doesn’t appear to be stressed about a thing as he smiles for the camera, holding up his glass”.

Maybe someday a real revolutionary party – as opposed to a real party with a revolutionary – will come along. Or a real revolution; something tangible. Seeing is believing after all, and it is hard to keep the faith when the revolution is hidden from the naked eye.

The EFF is more of a religion really. The genesis, the old testament fury, the coming apocalypse. In the meantime, we are lucky have our own contemporary revolutionary prophet, who speaks directly to God, and can interpret his words for us. Even if he does tell us to eat grass and drink petrol. Times are tough, and we all need something to believe in. Revolution is as good as anything else on offer.

As for the timeless revolution itself, it’s a painstaking business for the EFF. You can read about it in Shivambu’s book: “The Coming Revolution” (on sale on Amazon for $24.29 and available on Kindle). Or during the EFF’s upcoming 11th anniversary celebrations, where the invisible will again be made visible. The important thing is, it’s coming. No less important than the fact it is here. Or that it has been going for some time.