The Ballad of Julius Malema: A Profile of the Controversial South African Politician

South Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is hosting a poetry competition to commemorate its 10th anniversary, with a prize of R50,000 for the best poem about the party and its achievements. Participants are encouraged to submit their poems in any of the country’s 11 official languages. The party’s call-to-entry flyer asks entrants to write about the birth of the EFF, saying the story writes itself like a book, but we want to see how you can poetically write it. TechCentral asked OpenAI’s language model ChatGPT to write a poem titled The Ballad of Julius Malema, naming VBS, Malema’s supposed racism, and his tendency to flip-flop with the hope of winning the competition. An early composition provided by the AI was not considered suitable, but the chatbot later submitted a praise poem.