Malema is gone, but the youth are not

It was a bittersweet moment when I read of Julius Malema's suspension from the ANC and his axing as president of the Youth League. Why bittersweet, you may ask. Surely this is a huge relief for all South Africans? Julius Malema was a demagogue, a decisive figure who exploited his power to not only enrich himself, but also do sow the seeds of racial violence and incite hatred amongst the young black population towards the "imperialists" who, as far as I understood, were last involved in South Africa in 1910, when the Union was established.

Yes, Malema was a dangerous individual. As i have written before, he showed very obvious signs of being a Robert Mugabe-in-training, and the sooner he is completely out of the picture the better. If he was allowed to continue spitting his vitriol whenever and wherever he pleased without any sort of consequence, one could reasonably assume that eventually he would become leader of this country. Which, I am afraid to say, would be the end of South Africa as we know it. So, good riddance Julius. See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya, don't let the door hit you on the way out, and all that jazz.

I'm sure you must still be wondering then, why on earth would his demise be bittersweet? The reason is simple. While Malema himself is a pompous and hate-filled idiot, a lot of what he says is all too true. The millions of young, black citizens who are unemployed and living in abject poverty is the biggest problem our country faces, and they're plight is not only a tragedy, it is a ticking time bomb. While Malema may have had ulterior motives in appealing to these young people's sentiments, his statements were very real.

The saddest thing of all of this is that it had to be Malema who tapped into the psyche of the youth. Why oh why could it not have been someone else? The youth of this country need a saviour. Someone who will stand up for them, represent them, and take on the struggle. Unfortunately, the one person who did was the one none of us wanted.

While we all rejoiced at the end of Malema's reign of terror, we need to step back and take a minute to understand why so many youths jumped on his bandwagon. We must realise that these millions have lost all hope in bettering themselves, and therefore would go to the ends of the earth for anyone who made the smallest of promises to deliver them from hell. Malema is gone, but the youth are not, and they will not disappear, no matter how much we wish them to. We need a new Malema, albeit one who does not harbour the same evil aspirations. Someone who REALLY has the youth's agenda at heart. If not, we risk suffering from a worse fate than Julius himself could ever have delivered.