South Africa’s parliament degenerated into a fracas as it convened for the first time since the 2014 elections, however, the root of the disturbance was not so much Malema as the partisan behaviour of the speaker of the National Council of Provinces, Thandi Modise, who presided over the State of the Nation address debate.

Malema, standing in red overalls and black gumboots, looking larger than ever, had begun his maiden speech to parliament with a measure of dignity and even a measured tone. The content however was scathing. With a heavy emphasis on race, Malema attacked the ruling party and was often outright insulting to the president, sitting just meters away from him, looking wan and withdrawn.

It must have been galling for Jacob Zuma to be subjected to a hectoring lecture by his erstwhile protégé now accusing him of having sold out the revolution and being in co-hoots with white monopoly capital.

 (Watch from the 01:11:03 mark)

But the ANC big wigs had heard it all before. When Malema was still in the party, he used several occasions to deliver long, derisive and scornful tracts aimed at the ANC elite who glumly sat and watched him entertain the party rank and file.

Some MPs looked on slightly aghast; at times, others chortled indulgently at the spectacle, including one named target, the “honourable” (Malema was stopped and instructed by Modise to address him as such) deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa. Just two years ago, Ramaphosa delivered the disciplinary judgment that expelled Malema from the ANC like a naughty schoolboy.

“The ANC government massacred the people in Marikana … those police were representing the ANC government”

Modise interrupted Malema and told him he was to stick to the state of the nation address, saying, “the factional battles and whatever let them stay where they are”.

Malema looked taken aback. “You are not going to tell me, chair, how I must debate … I cannot be told what to say,” he said.

He was correct. Yet Malema, after a quick calculation (and several pages of script still to go), did withdraw his comment on the “factional tendencies” of the honourable member of the house Blade Nzimande. The SA Communist Party leader, looking odiously smug, chuckled heartily.

But it was another point of order called on Malema’s comment that “the ANC government massacred the people in Marikana … those police were representing the ANC government” that was the last straw for the ANC. Modise said she would take advice.

Her ruling the next evening was that the comment was indeed unparliamentary and Malema was asked to withdraw it. Modise took the view he’d accused honourable members of the house of murder. After Malema refused to withdraw the comment, he was told to leave the house.

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) marched out en masse, repeating the statement, pointing at ANC MPs and shouting “murderers”, and loudly reminding Modise that she was premier of the province when the Marikana massacre happened.

The public, the pundits and the commentators, on social media and on the radio talk shows, quickly divided into those who agreed with Malema disagreeing with Modise and vice versa.

The next day, Malema addressed the media inside parliament, while outside, a hundred EFF supporters held a boisterous protest with a huge banner that read “ANC government massacred 34 Marikana workers” and incendiary placards, one of which read: “Zuma must die”.

Malema took centre stage. Analysis and criticism of Zuma’s State of the Nation address by opposition parties and Zuma’s reply were completely lost in the noise.

Members of Julius Malema's Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party demonstrate outside Parliament in Cape Town. Image by Mike Hutchings / Reuters

Members of Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party demonstrate outside Parliament in Cape Town. Image by Mike Hutchings / Reuters

Whether one agrees with Malema or not, his Marikana argument is not so totally without merit that it can on any sensible grounds be ruled unparliamentary.

Nor is Malema particularly concerned about bringing the institution into disrepute.

“I’m not here for rules of Parliament. I’m here for a revolution,” said Malema. He said the rules of parliament were a colonial inheritance that stifled a militant analysis of the situation in the country.

The EFF will consider going to court if necessary.

Meanwhile, Modise is consulting the speaker of parliament and the committee overseeing powers, privileges, and immunities to decide what further action will be taken.

“I'm not here for rules of Parliament. I'm here for a revolution”

South Africa’s parliamentary debates haven’t exactly shone with oratory in the past. The fifth parliament may be livelier and more diverse, authority more challenged, but between the EFF’s fiery shenanigans and the ANC’s self-harming attempts to discipline and control their rebellious chickens which have come home to roost, the National Assembly is fast losing its dignity.

The National Assembly has hardly been a place of constructive and intelligent debate that moves legislators to focus in a more informed manner on the severe and increasingly critical challenges facing a country with a floundering economy.

Although it did not degenerate into fisticuffs, many conservative citizens are appalled. The Christian Democratic Party said it was “disgusted” by the EFF’s antics.

Yet South Africa’s unruly populace, which at times veers dangerously towards anarchy and mayhem, is also sometimes its saving grace. We are not so easy to control or obedient enough to allow a dictatorship to take root once again. Few countries in Africa would tolerate the way South Africans have learned to use their freedom of speech.

But how Malema’s personal attacks and current strategy of contempt is going to legislatively advance the interests of the unemployed youth who have voted him in to represent them in parliament is hard to see.