As a PR professional I am continually aghast at the words that come from Julius Malema’s (ANC youth league President) mouth. When I first heard his comments at OR Tambo airport on Monday I was shocked. By saying “Where are the white people” and getting a huge cheering response, this man (or should I say child) was clearly inciting racial tension. Was he just saying what first came to his head without thinking about the implications, or is there a more sinister reason for creating further racial divide in South Africa?
My advice to leaders of this country is the following:
1. Always think of the implications of your words before you speak, especially if you are in public and with media present. These implications could have far reaching damage to SA’s reputation especially with the World Cup around the corner.
2. In a country that has a legacy such as ours where we are all working towards a society that is not divided along racial lines – these words from Malema (which he continaully flaunts) set us back twenty years. He should not be allowed to continue. True leaders have the interests of others (their country, company, people) at heart not their own selfish interests. Lets look at it from a business perspective, if he was my employee he would be severly reprimanded and eventually fired for damaging the reputation and business of my company.
I can’t help but wonder if Malema has visions of himself creating a revolution in SA by rallying the youth behind him and creating chaos.
3. Leaders of this country need to stop Malema somehow from shooting from the hip and creating racial division (unless that is what the ANC aims to do to South Africa). I cannot believe that this is the vision of the ANC.
In a nutshell: what I am saying is not rocket science but PR 101. What more damage does he have to do, before the leaders of this country stop him…do it soon or it may be too late.
