ANC to act on Malema
2011-08-07 14:35
Cape Town - ANC leaders are expected to demand tough action against the ANC Youth League at a meeting on Monday, amid fresh allegations that its president Julius Malema is benefiting from multi-million rand tenders funded by public money.
Malema was "happy to make millions from privatisation while calling for nationalisation", the City Press reported in a front page article on Sunday under the headline "Two Faced".
Last week, City Press reported that Malema was using a secret family trust to finance his lifestyle.
This week, it reported that a company he partly owned was directly benefiting from multi-million rand tenders it helped to award.
According to the newspaper, the Limpopo government outsourced essential government functions to the company, which meant it was engaged in the privatisation of state functions.
Nationalisation
Malema is pushing for the ANC to make the nationalisation of mines, banks and land its policy at its congress next year.
According to City Press, Malema’s Ratanang Family Trust owns a stake in On-Point Engineers (Pty) Ltd, which is a private company headed by Malema’s former business partner Lesiba Gwangwa.
The company allegedly "cashes in" on the Limpopo road tenders it is supposed to manage, the newspaper reported.
On-Point was awarded a R51m tender by the Limpopo roads and transport department in 2009 to design, manage and implement road projects in the province through an outfit called the "project management unit".
As part of the tender, On-Point’s duties include supporting the department with the adjudication and awarding of road tenders. On Friday, the Mail&Guardian reported that Malema was dishing out tenders to his friends through a R4.6bn road management deal.
Opposition
The newspaper reported that Malema had admitted to owning shares in On-Point through the Ratanang Family Trust, of which he was a co-trustee. The other trustee is his grandmother Sarah. Beeld reported on Saturday that Malema had allegedly backed out of a deal to buy a R3.5m farm near Polokwane, in Limpopo.
Malema had already allegedly paid a R800 000 deposit on the 139 hectare farm.
Opposition political parties have also called on the SA Revenue Services to investigate Malema's wealth, saying it is not compatible with his reported R25 000 a month salary.
The Sunday Times reported that President Jacob Zuma, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe and ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe would lead an party delegation at a meeting with Malema and his recently elected executive on Monday.
They are expected to question him about a series of statements he made about supporting "forces" in Botswana to unseat that country's ruling party, headed by President Ian Khama.
Impact
The ANCYL described the Botswana Democratic Party as a "security threat to Africa".
Zuma's international relations adviser Lindiwe Zulu told the Sunday Times that the ANC had to act against Malema if it was to regain the respect of neighbouring countries.
She said: "I was in Zimbabwe not so long ago and people there were saying: 'What's wrong with you? What's happening? Tell us whether the youth league is the one in charge so that we can talk to the youth league and not you.' You don't like getting to places and getting such statements.
"I feel they should be disciplined. We can't keep talking about this discipline in corners ... there were issues that the ANC agreed upon in as far as comrade Malema is concerned. I sit here and ask myself: 'Where is that process? Does (Malema) really understand the impact of some of his utterances?'" Zulu said.
- SAPA
