The rise of South Africa's Julius Malema...

The black man who is rude about whites is doing rather well...

HE USED to be dismissed as an ignorant buffoon, whose populist ranting and colourful racist tirades usefully filled newspaper column inches on a dull day. But now, following Julius Malema’s triumphant re-election unopposed as leader of the powerful Youth League of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), South Africans are beginning to wonder whether they have not spawned a “dictator-in-waiting”, as Helen Zille, leader of the Democratic Alliance, the main opposition party, has dubbed him.

Despite his famed “G”—a dismally low grade—for his woodwork exam in his school-leaving matriculation, Mr Malema is no fool. He has proved himself a master at politics and at tapping into the anger of his young black audiences. More than half of black youths under 25 are officially unemployed; the real figure is much higher. Two-thirds leave school without any qualifications. Most live in poor black townships or shanty towns, ineligible for state welfare. Seventeen years after the ANC came to power promising a better life for all, many can look forward only to a career of crime and drugs or to early death through AIDS. More...

Don't miss:

1. Racist South African mob beats Zimbabwean to death... (Graphic)
2. Black staff in South African hospital accused of ill-treating white patients...
3. White farmers 'being wiped out' in South Africa. More than 3000 killed but...
4. South Africa's new AWB leader loses his cool on live TV...
5. South Africa; poor whites, rich blacks... 
6. If you're newly rich in South Africa, you must be a witch!!!