Malema has been at the centre of tensions between Washington and Pretoria and featured prominently in a video that President Donald Trump showed in a meeting with his counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa in May to back baseless claims of a "white genocide" in South Africa.

"Our country is broken and in danger of becoming a failed state," Mwangi said at a rally, where supporters wore t-shirts bearing his likeness, waved the national flag and chanted his slogan "Upendo na ujasiri", meaning "love and courage" in Swahili.