Malema should not be silenced

REMEMBER the other year when the ANC's mighty and powerful descended on the Equality Court in the Johannesburg High Court to defend Julius Malema?

They were there in full force to stand by the then ANC Youth League president's right to sing Dubul'ibhunu.

ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe even spruced himself up and put on a suit and tie to impress the judge.

Accusing Afrikaner groupings of Malemaphobia, Mantashe told the court that the song belonged to the liberation movement and not just to Malema.

When Mantashe defended Malema, the two men were already not seeing eye to eye. Malema and the youth league had been agitating for Mantashe's removal at the Mangaung ANC conference and for him to be replaced by Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula.

But on principle, Mantashe stood by his nemesis. And that cannot be easy when that person happens to be Malema.

You see Malema is not a very likeable individual.

He is a bully, a misogynist, a populist, a demagogue, an opportunist and - it has been alleged - not the cleanest politician in town.

He is all these negative things and more.

In fact, his only saving grace is that he loves that glorious black-and-white football club which is the only one in Southern Africa that has a Champions League star on its jersey and which made history by winning back-to-back trebles. For having that sense of reason we can cut Malema some slack.

Otherwise, he deserves pretty much what he has coming at him.

What he does not deserve, however, is to be silenced. Over the past few months there has been a concerted effort to cut Malema's political oxygen by barring him from having any direct contact with ANC structures.

Now, the ANC is fully entitled to control who has access to its structures. All organisations have the right to determine who gets to address its members.

What the ANC or any other public entity is not entitled to do is to prevent the rest of the public from hearing what he has to say.

But that is exactly what has been happening. We have seen the public broadcaster severely limit Malema's access to the airwaves, to the point of even forcing a talk-show host to cancel an interview with him.

The high-ups at the SABC will of course contend that barring Malema is a purely editorial decision and not a result of any form of influence from the mandarins at Luthuli House.

But most people would believe this as much as they would tales of tooth fairies leaving money under kids' pillows or gogos packaging lightning in Limpopo.

It seems the current leadership at the broadcaster, which largely consists of highly principled individuals, has fallen into the same trap as previous managers who tripped over each other to please the whims of the Essop Pahads and Smuts Ngonyamas of the Thabo Mbeki era.

Then there was the incident in Marikana this week when the police prevented Malema from addressing miners.

The officers on the ground argued that Malema was going to incite the crowd. Based on this suspicion they ordered him to leave and even escorted him out of the area.

I know exactly how much the ANC hates comparisons being made between today's South Africa and the apartheid era, but the events of Monday harked back to the days when activists were barred from certain magisterial districts on the whim of a police commander or some arbitrary guy with grey shoes and moustache.

Many people would say Malema got his just desserts.

They will say that this is the same person who has exploited the genuine frustration and anger of poor people for his own political ends.

The blame for the insurrectionary fires spreading through the land will be heaped on him.

Surely someone like him deserves silencing, it will be said. The country will be a better place if we compromise freedom of expression and association just this once. Anything to rid ourselves of Julius, the echoes will go.

Wrong.

Democracy is about letting multiple voices be heard, including those whose views we do not like. Where those voices cross the line, there are laws and codes of conduct to deal with them.

In the past when Malema did seem to cross the line and became an "insult-a-day" specialist, our governors had no issue with him. It was left to other sections of society to rein him in, using the courts and other constitutional structures.

Today, now that he is persona non grata in the ANC, it appears that it is fine to use all means necessary to shut him up.

If this society is happy to compromise its principles because the victim is Malema, then we should not scream foul the day the jackboots come down on our necks.

Principle is principle and it is indivisible.