In my long career as a journalist I have made a point of never disclosing which political party gets my vote. But this year, I’m going to break that rule and make public the fact that I’m going to be voting for Julius Malema and the EFF.

Why, I hear you ask? Surely a middle-aged white, with one or two modest assets built up over a lifetime of work, is about as far from JuJu and his red berets as it’s possible to get? Wouldn’t I be just the sort of person he’d either nationalise or send for re-education in the very first wave?

Quite right. That’s why I’m voting for him. Allow me to explain.

Last week, I had the pleasure of sharing a platform with erudite and incisive author, Max du Preez, analysing the 2014 Budget and talking about his new book, A Rumour of Spring. He made the comment that any South African with any kind of assets, but particularly whites, needs Julius Malema inside Parliament and not outside. De Preez’s reasoning is that once even the most hot-headed firebrand takes a seat in our National Assembly, he or she has to moderate the wild words. The atmosphere in the chamber, contends du Preez, is very different from the atmosphere on the hustings or in a stadium. “Malema would simply not be able to talk as much k*k,” stated du Preez confidently.

If you like, it’s a version of US President Lyndon Johnson’s famous 1971 nostrum about FBI boss, J. Edgar Hoover: “It’s probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in.”

Another aspect of the process would be that the young politician’s more bizarre ideas – like nationalising the banks to fund vast increases in social grants – would not stand the scrutiny provided by Parliament. Du Preez is convinced that becoming an MP would result in a more moderate and mature Malema, and that alone is reason enough to vote for him.

It’s a compelling argument, which is why I’ll be taking du Preez’s advice and reaching for my red beret come election day, although I must add two caveats.

The first is that I have once before voted tactically in this way. Back in the 80s, and living in Randburg, I was persuaded that a vote for the National Party and its young candidate, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, was necessary to keep the Conservative Party’s candidate out. (Those were the days when we still had constituencies.) After much deliberation, I marked my ballot paper accordingly. Within five minutes of exiting the polling station, I was seized by violent nausea at the thought of having voted Nat; it’s a feeling of deep revulsion that returns whenever I see reference to van Schalkwyk in his current role as an ANC cabinet minister. If I’m assailed by a similar urge to vomit as my pen heads towards the EFF box on this year’s ballot paper, I reserve the right to change my mind.

The second is that I don’t think Malema will survive politically. He has the hurdle of the SARS sequestration order, due to be finalised just before the election, and if by some miracle he clears that, he still faces several fraud charges. When Malema wails that an order to nail him went out from on high, I think he’s right – the timing of the announcements of the Hawks and SARS investigations into his affairs was too close to be coincidental. Assuming the state manages not to wreck the prosecution through carelessness or incompetence, I think there’s a very fair chance Malema will be found guilty and jailed.

What might emerge from somewhere like Sun City or Pretoria Central in a few years from then doesn’t bear thinking about. A much harder, prison-toughened radical with a major need for revenge, perhaps?

Julius Malema in Parliament immediately seems a much more attractive prospect.