Welcome to ‘South African Politics Is A Farce’, episode four hundred and eleventy-five.

In case you’ve missed the build-up to this showdown, it involves the EFF and their recent attempts to focus attention on anything that doesn’t involve their involvement in the looting of VBS Bank.

They’ve gone after Pravin Gordhan, who has finally had enough, and they’ve also gone after John Steenhuisen, the DA Chief Whip, for not having any tertiary education qualifications.

Things came to a head yesterday in Parliament when Steenhuisen stepped up to the mic, with the EFF getting involved right from the start.

Before we show you the full back and forth, we will start with the DA’s video, which shows what Steenhuisen had to say in full, minus “the spurious points of order”.

In other words, minus the EFF’s persistent interruptions and grandstanding:

WATCH: John Steenhuisen responds to claims that he should not be the DA’s Chief Whip in Parliament without a university degree.

“The Constitution of the republic is very clear as to who qualifies to be a member of this house…”

Without the spurious points of order pic.twitter.com/yvsgBAfdfo

— Democratic Alliance (@Our_DA) November 27, 2018

Strong words.

If you want the real drama, though, you need to see the full video, which includes all those points of order:

In case you skipped through it and missed out – yes, Steenhuisen was called a racist from around the 9:30 mark, because would it really be a sitting of Parliament without the EFF calling somebody a racist?

Sure, the DA haven’t covered themselves in glory with their handling of Day Zero and the Patricia de Lille fiasco and the ensuing resignations from the party, but it’s now become abundantly clear (if it wasn’t already) that Malema and his cohorts are just as self-serving as those they’ve been slinging insults at for years.

Leading the way is Julius, so before we go let’s check in with Marius Oosthuizen at the Daily Maverick, who is wondering “How to solve a problem like Malema”:

Julius Malema is a child of this struggle. Not only the good struggle for liberation from apartheid, but the ANC’s elitist struggle that followed, for the accumulation of material wealth. First as an ANC Youth League demagogue, amassing R18-million in tax debts, later paid by a notorious trader in illicit cigarettes, and more recently as a self-styled militarist “commander-in-chief” of so-called “ground forces”.

Using mobile stages, the parliamentary arena, and open-air rallies to ride the news cycle through the use of controversy, Malema has built a public persona which now casts an enormous shadow over our national discourse. An icon for some, forged in the cauldron of anger and greed…

He, and the new EFF elite, have the same basic strategy as the false prosperity prophets which dot our inner cities; they preach illusive affluence while enriching themselves on the backs of the faithful hopeful, as was done at VBS…

The trouble with the political cancer that Malema has nurtured is that he feeds off criticism and uses truth, critique and rejection as twisted linchpins around which to create momentum and popularise his message…

Malema’s carnival of polarisation is only accelerated by confrontation. As with all bullies, they are best overcome by ignoring them, banishing them to the lonely world of their own dysfunction. As an enemy of a good society, they are overcome by the rule of law, principled debate and an unwillingness to be intimidated.

Starve Julius of the attention he desires, and deny him a platform to spread his lies and hate, and maybe the fire will die down just a little.

Not that we can see that happening any time in the near future.

[sources:enca&dailymav&ewn]