A Political Hero Misunderstood.

Opposition parties,political critics,and general grassroots-level anti-Malema lobbyists were ecstatic as Derek Henekom delivered the daunting verdict regarding Julius Malema's future in the ruling party.The verdict-which I must admit brought a lot of mixed reviews from political commentators-was quite simple and matter- of-fact:Julius Malema would be suspended from the party for five years.This suspension would run concurrently with his previous two-year suspension that he had gotten a year ago.

The charges (and please bare in mind that this is a mere personal opinion) are just a tad bit too controversial for me.For instance,one of the three charges that Julius Malema faced was that of sowing divisions within the organisation and consequently bringing it into disrepute.Correct me if I am wrong,but were not divisions already sown before the young fella even became president of the entity's youth league?With all due respect,the party had already been split into two antagonistic groups during Thabo Mbeki's era-and do not get me wrong,Thabo Mbeki was an astute,industrious leader who led the country in the right direction,especially economically,but,alas,his firm,business-as-usual disposition yielded him political antagonists within the organisation,who would subsequently,unfortunately plot his downfall.

The second charge which the young revolutionary faced was for criticising Botswana  president,Ian Khama,for being a puppet of the US government and thereby indirectly supporting imperialism.The fact that the Botswana Congress Party Youth League actually championed this brutally honest criticism of the Botswana president is irrevocably indicative of Julius Malema's no-nonsense,matter-of-fact character,which,I strongly believe,the ruling party's (ANC) president unfortunately lacks.

From all the political controversy that Julius Malema has been recently entagled in,I can safely,personally deduce that the young revolutionary's political views and objectives are immensely misunderstood.Juju,as he's affectionately known by his supporters,is irrefutably a towering figure in South African politics;he's fierceness -admitedly,sometimes out of control-and impetus for the liberation of black people (be it economically or racially) is arguably comparable to that of the great Nelson Mandela during his youth days.

When Nelson Mandela and his fellow young cadres within the ANCYL opposed the motherboard's (the ANC,which was then led by Dr AB Xhuma) primary decree of fighting racial segregration using peaceful,non-violent methods,a huge number of ANC supporters regarded them as disrespectful and somewhat anti-revolutionary when,in actual fact,they were pro-revolutionary and only acted in the best interests of the country.The mere fact that the manufacturers of apartheid ignored any non-violent,peaceful protests that were conducted by anti-apartheid lobbyists,was abundantly indicative of Mandela's notion that the only way to get through to the then oppressive apartheid government was to utilize violence and aggression,which,of course using hindsight,was quite effective.

So,in conclusion-taking into consideration all the relevant facts that are attributable to ANC's history and the aforementioned historical events-one can certainly extrapolate that politicians with vigorous,fierce,and tell-it-like-it-is personalities-such as Nelson Mandela and Julius Malema-are pivotal in bringing about radical political change and sustaining such change for the betterment of the nation.