EFF MPs embody local-level ANC culture

Nomalanga Mkhize, Business Day

THERE’s an African idiom that warns that if you let your child be a menace to the community, one day that same child will chase you around the house with your own sjambok. The idiom warns of the stark humiliation awaiting elders who leave the disciplining of their young so late that they develop incorrigible tendencies. One could argue that ever since his expulsion in 2012, Julius Malema has been chasing the African National Congress (ANC) all about the village with its own sjambok.

Riot Police in Parliament

Richard Pithouse, SACSIS

When the ANC raised Jacob Zuma above the rule of law and the scrutiny of parliament they repeated, on live television, an aspect of the logic with which the subaltern classes are routinely governed. The democratic rights that have been enjoyed by the middle classes over the last twenty years are frequently denied to people who inhabit zones, like the former Bantustan or the urban shack settlement, where different rules apply.