One of South Africa’s leading Mugabe praise-singers Julius Malema has proved that South Africans are craving for change. Once written off as a blabber-mouth, Malema, whose Economic Freedom Front went to the elections held midweek with calls for nationalisation of mines and taking over of land the Zimbabwe way, surprised everyone when his party shot up to become the third most powerful party in the country, less than nine months after its formation. Twenty-nine parties contested the elections. Malema’s party polled 6.35 percent of the vote. Though this was 10 percent of the vote that the ruling African National Congress won, and just over a quarter of the Democratic Alliance vote, Malema could soon overtake the DA as the official opposition. Malema was quite clear in his election campaign that he wanted to go the Zimbabwe way in terms of revolutionising the economy. He did not even support the current black empowerment because it enriches individuals. He wants something that benefits the entire community. “We are going to take charge of our own lives like the Zimbabweans have done. You can say whatever you want to say about Zimbabweans. In the next 10 years they will be the only Africans in the whole of Africa who own their country because, why, they were ready to take the pain. Revolution is about pain. Revolution is change and change is painful. We are ready for that pain. We need that pain,” he said during the campaign. It appears though, that Zimbabweans do not realise this. They are whining all the time.
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