A coincidental language of violence?

For South Africa, yesterday (June, 16) was Youth Day -a public holiday. And news cameras were everywhere to capture the wisdom and leadership guidance of political leaders. A few weeks ago, South Africa was a country in shame: the ugly face of negrophobic violence and killings in informal settlements flooded national and international media. Yet, African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) president Julius Malema was on national TV yesterday speaking in a loud and pompous manner, "We are prepared to take up arms and kill for Zuma." (See newspaper reports on this story here, here and here) Sadly, Malema (and those who chose to televise his speech!) did not realise that violence is transferable once the psychological possibilities have been established: the same oil that was used for burning black foreigners in the past few weeks, the same machetes that were used to hack and destroy people's homes, the same ruthlessness and anger that was unleashed on black foreigners can be transferred to non-Zuma supporters. We have seen this happen in South Africa and elsewhere before... a transference from tribal wrangles, to faction fighting, and later political violence. When are we going to learn?