Malema pays up
2010-03-05 08:51
Johannesburg - ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema hastily applied for the renewal of his driver's licence this week, after it was reported that his licence had expired in September last year.
He also suddenly paid more than R4 500 in outstanding fines which had accumulated over the past two years.
Only one remains unpaid: a R300 fine from the time he raced through Thabo Mofutsanyana in his luxury C-class Mercedes at a speed of 137km/h in July 2008.
Beeld has heard that Malema showed up at the Polokwane traffic department on Monday, where Ronnie Makhado, the chief testing official, reportedly personally helped Malema to complete his driver's licence application.
Preferential treatment
When asked whether Malema really did renew his licence on Monday, Makhado told Beeld on Thursday: "Yes, I guess he has... I can't remember because we do licence renewals here every day. I'm currently in a meeting... We would have helped anyone with a renewal if the licence was valid. I don't want to comment about other people's personal business."
According to a witness, Malema was given preferential treatment.
"As far as I could see he didn't go through the right channels, because, you know, people there complain a lot. They sit in the waiting room for hours and then they have to go in for eye tests and finger prints, while he was helped personally by Mr Makhado."
In September last year Beeld's sister publication Rapport revealed that Malema had failed to pay 14 fines totalling R5 000 since December 2007.
Some of the fines had expired because they remained unpaid for so long.
'I know nothing about driving a car'
When a Rapport journalist asked about the fines at the time, Malema said: "I know only revolution, I know nothing about driving a car."
"Let me tell you, my friend, I defeated you and your apartheid regime and I will conquer you again, once and for all!" he said.
The Star newspaper reported on Monday that Malema's driver's licence expired in September last year.
Beeld determined that most of the fines were issued against Mercedes Benz C-class cars with the registration numbers XZT876GP and WVK733GP. There will also fines for a Hyundai Tucson with the registration number VZW147GP.
The most expensive fine was for R1 100 when he was caught driving at a speed of 169km/h on the N1 south at 15:12 on September 21 2008.
Lied
Beeld also established that Malema's lawyer, Tumi Mokoena, had lied when he said earlier this week at a news conference that, shortly after Malema's election as president of the ANCYL in 2008, he had arranged for Malema to be removed as director of various companies. Mokoena said he had personally completed the forms online.
But according to Elsabe Conradie, spokesperson for the Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office (Cirpro), the only letter of resignation that Cirpro received from Malema is related to the Nkgape Mining Investment company.
According to her, it's impossible for Mokoena to have completed an electronic application.
"When electronic documents are submitted, they are picked up immediately by our system."
Conradie said that some of the companies are being deregistered because they failed to file annual returns.