Malema info 'not from state security'

2010-03-12 14:05

Cape Town - ANC Youth League president Julius Malema did not receive any classified information from the Department of State Security, according to State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele.

"It is not true... that a private citizen by the name of Malema obtained classified information from the Department of State Security," Cwele said at a media briefing in Cape Town on Friday.

"Mr Malema did not have any access to classified documents in possession of the state security agency.

"It is not our policy or practice to give classified documents or information to private citizens."

Cwele said "at no stage" had Malema ever said that he had obtained classified documents from the state security agency.

"It is the political parties who are insinuating that Malema, whatever document he got, he got from my department."

Zuma supporters 'targeted'

In February, in the wake of a debate over his personal assets, Malema asked the police to investigate a list of people believed to be targeting supporters of President Jacob Zuma.

Malema said he did not mind being audited by the SA Revenue Services, but not if it was driven by a political agenda.

He said once the revenue services were used to further the political interests of ANC breakaway group Congress of the People, the Independent Democrats, the Democratic Alliance, or factional interests within the ANC, then there was a problem.

"I'm saying so because we have got a document of a list of people and I will make it public. We just took it to the police for them to verify it. A list of people who must be targeted... and these people are called Zuma people."

The document came from intelligence officers, he said.

"Intelligence has got a responsibility to deal with that and they found this to be very unacceptable and they thought they needed to alert us," he said on the SABC's After Eight Debate.

- SAPA