ANCYL rallies behind Malema

2010-02-21 22:59

Johannesburg - ANCYL branches countrywide have rallied behind their beleaguered president, Julius Malema, whose lavish lifestyle reportedly is being bankrolled by lucrative government contracts.

The Sunday Times reported that some of the multi-million rand tenders awarded to Malema's companies were from Limpopo, his home province.

Citing official tender and government documents, the paper reported that Malema's companies were awarded more than 20 contracts, each worth between R500 000 and R39m between 2007 and 2008.

One of the companies, a small engineering firm, profited from more than R130m worth of tenders in just two years.

The Northern Cape Youth League dismissed newspaper reports into Malema's lifestyle as a gross misrepresentation of facts.

"The scurrility of these reports is a sad reflection on the absurd state of journalism in this country which has gone to the gutters."

It added in a statement that all parties concerned should be given enough time to state their case before a report such as that over Malema could be published.

When contacted by the Sunday Times, Malema reportedly refused to discuss his business dealings saying "that is none of your business".

Freedom Charter

The ANCYL in Mpumalanga criticised media for embarking on what it called a campaign to "cast aspersions on the integrity" of Malema.

It said that Malema's business interests were justified by the aspirations of the Freedom Charter.

The charter said: "All people shall have equal rights to trade where they choose, to manufacture and to enter all trades, crafts and professions."

The Gauteng league blamed the sudden interest in Malema's lifestyle to forces within the organisation that wanted to "to deflect our attention from both policy (nationalisation) and leadership articulation".

The ANC Youth League has called a news conference to be addressed by Malema and other top officials on Monday.

ANC

The ANC earlier on Sunday said Malema had not breached any law or code of ethics by being involved in business.

Spokesperson Brian Sokutu said the youth leader was not at fault.

"The ANC has noted reports on Sunday detailing Comrade Julius Malema's interests, but Comrade Malema is neither a member of Parliament or a Cabinet minister and he has therefore not breached any law or code of ethics by being involved in business," he said.

But Sokutu added that the ANC was still "grumbling" with an idea of coming up with a code of conduct to be adhered to by its senior cadres who have business interests.

'Cashing in on misery'

Independent Democrats leader Patricia De Lille said Malema should stop pretending to represent the poor when he was living in opulence earned from the poor and ordinary taxpayers in a society plagued by the worst inequalities in the world.

"While the majority continue to be marginalised and ill-treated, the very few Malemas of our country are cashing in on their misery," De Lille said.

She called on the SA Revenue Service to "tell us if Malema has paid his taxes".

"It is very difficult to give him the benefit of the doubt when he has already lied about what he earns, saying he was a middle income earner and making millions from government tenders," she said.

The DA Youth said the fact that Malema's companies did not complete the jobs as tasked highlighted the problem with government tenders being allocated to "cronies".

This it said came at the expense of the majority, "since they are provided to those who are well connected, rather than those with the skills to deliver services to the people".

According to Rapport newspaper, the Congress of the People (Cope) was the first to raise the question in the Limpopo Legislature after it found out that Malema had 21 tenders from eight of the province's municipalities.

Houses bought for cash

Details of Malema's lavish lifestyle were first reported in the Star newspaper on Friday.

The newspaper reported that Malema bought a three-bedroom home in Sandown for R3.6m and a R1m mansion in Polokwane, which he allegedly both bought for cash.

The newspaper also quoted sources in the youth league saying Malema earned R20 000 a month.

At the same time that the transfer of the Sandown house went through, Malema attended a news conference in a Gucci suit, and sported a Breitling watch worth about R250 000, the newspaper reported.

City Press reported on Sunday that SGL Engineering, was a company Malema and his business partner, Lesiba Cuthbert Gwangwa, 31, owned.

The company has won tenders for road construction, street paving, sewer reticulation, bulk water supply, landfill sites, cemeteries, central business district updates and provision of drainage systems.

Some of the contracts held by the company also included eight tenders worth R66.4m from Mopani district municipality for construction of roads and the building of a fire station and sewer reticulation in the Modjadji area.

Five contracts valued at R28m from Tzaneen municipality for upgrading the CBD, a cemetery and multipurpose centre were also awarded to Malema.

Another was a R27.9m street-paving contract from the Greater Letaba municipality.

Life-style audit

Zwelinzima Vavi, general secretary of the Congress of SA Trade Unions recently called for a "lifestyle audit" of all Cabinet ministers, director generals and deputy director generals to determine why they can afford to have "more than one mansion", holiday homes and to take expensive holidays.

However, President Jacob Zuma, said in an interview with the Sunday Times: "How we could effect that I am not sure."

"It has not been discussed with me. People might say why do you audit some and not society in broader terms. But workers have the right to make the call. We have not sat down [with Cosatu] to discuss it," Zuma was quoted as saying.

The Limpopo provincial government could not be reached for comment.

- SAPA