History is littered with cults that use political ideals as their base. Classic examples of this type of cult are Hitler’s Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Communist USSR. This was mind control on a large scale. On a smaller scale, white and black supremacists, terrorists, and rebel groups commonly use forms of mind control to recruit and dominate members. Under this type of cult we include examples such as The Michigan Militia, Posse Comitatus, The Nation of Islam and The Ku Klux Klan. And dare I include South Africa’s very own AWB (Afrikaner Weerstand Beweeging).

There has been an increase in the politics of personalities and the formation of cults around political leaders. Smaller parties, four of them new, and the EFF have presented the electorate with prominent leadership figures and will hang the immediate future of their parties on these personalities. For the ruling ANC, too, the election has become a lot more about Cyril Ramaphosa than it is about the party. In fairness, the ANC is less of a cult, than say, the EFF, Hlaudi Motsoeneng’s African Content Movement, or Andile Mngxitama and the Black First Land First Movement (BLF). However, the EFF has become a classic example of how cults rise out of the personality of one charismatic leader. A leader who can do no wrong in the eyes of the rank and file and who's followers will say and do anything to defend their leader. Even when they are confronted with the hypocrisy and outright lies of that particular leader.