You Don’t Have to Be Poor to be Pro-Poor

South Africa’s most loved politician, President of the ANC Youth League, advocate of mine nationalisation and passionate demagogue Julius “Juju” Malema has once again made the headlines and provided the nation with something to talk about.


This time he’s not sung racist songs about “Shooting the Boer” or announced that the banks are next in line for nationalisation. No, this time he has merely decided to buy a new house.

Malema, who currently resides in a R4million mansion in Alexandra, one of Johannesburg’s biggest and poorest townships, has decided that his house is no longer suitable for a politician of his standing and decided to build a R16million fortress in Sandown, one of Johannesburg’s wealthiest areas. Juju’s 917 square metre big playboy palace comes with a safe room, a swimming pool with viewing platform and an upstairs room for his car (seriously)!

Leaving aside the fact Julius has only lived in his old house for a few years, that his new residence will only be a couple of kilometres away from his current house, that he claims to represent the interests of South Africa’s poor and the fact that one might find it inappropriate and tasteless that he spends R16million on a house when the people he represents struggle to earn enough to survive.

All those controversial issues aside, one of the most widely discussed questions is where on Earth Julius got the money from to pay for this house.

As President of the ANC Youth League, he has an official income of R25 000 per month and does not engage in any form of income generating work for the private sector. How can he possibly afford a house more than fifty times his annual income?

Juju claims that he is not a rich man and does not have R16million lying in the bank, but that he is credit-worthy. So assuming that he went to the bank, applied for a loan and was granted one - what would a R16million bond look like?

Well, if Julius was given a standard loan at normal South African interest rates of around 9% with a maturity of 20years, he would have to pay R144 000 to service his bond every month.

So even if he got a loan to finance his mansion, how can he possible pay R144 000 on his bond with a monthly income of “only” R25 000?

Something is rotten in the state of South Africa...

This is what Juju's current house...

... in his current neighbourhood looks like!

Imagine what the new palace will be like in an area where the average house looks like this..?!