Once one of South Africa’s most maligned politicians, EFF leader Julius Malema has seemingly reinvented himself in just a few short years.
Since he was kicked out of the ANC Youth League in his younger years, which subsequently opened the doors for the birth of the EFF, Malema hasn’t exactly remained on the periphery of popular culture. One of his most notable achievements is arguably his mastery of social media.
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This online fame is definitely notable on the streets too.
Case in point? Malema took to Pretoria’s streets this week to hand out pamphlets to citizens, and raising awareness for the #NationalDayOfAction protest taking place in the city. And well, people literally stopped, stared and whipped out their phones to record the moment.
It sounds mundane, but he somehow made it look cool as hell.
It was like a Lil Wayne music video.
CIC @Julius_S_Malema pamphleteering to people standing on ques for taxis in Pretoria for #NationalDayofAction:
We are led!pic.twitter.com/opC9P4HHIj — EFF Official Account (@EFFSouthAfrica) April 11, 2017
The short was published to Twitter by the official EFF account, and has since racked up over 370 likes, 220 retweets and a number of positive comments from users.
Malema took to Pretoria’s streets this week to hand out pamphlets to citizens, and raising awareness for the #NationalDayOfAction
“The future of our beloved country depends on him, I hope he won’t give up fighting for what is right,” one user notes.
“The people’s president,” another wrote, including two fist bump emojis.
High praise indeed. But it wasn’t always like this.
Back in 2014, @Julius_s_Malema was a parody account, poking fun at the then-volatile, jagged-edged politician. But by reclaiming the account, Malema has seemingly used that negative press to his advantage.
He now boasts a healthy 1.34-million followers, more than double that of DA leader Mmusi Maimane, and four times that of the official ANC account.
But to be fair, regardless of their Twitter follower status, few politicians of our current era could make handing out pamphlets this cool.
Feature image: EFF Official Account via Twitter
