Malema ‘secret trust’ furore
ANCYL president Julius Malema. Photo: Bongiwe Mchunu ANCYL president Julius Malema. Photo: Bongiwe Mchunu
Julius Malema will have to answer to the ANC and faces a criminal investigation into allegations that a secret trust, of which he is the sole trustee, operated as a depository for cash paid by business people in exchange for help from the influential ANC Youth League president to secure tenders and push political agendas.
Cosatu called on Sunday for an investigation into the financial affairs of Malema, as Afriforum laid charges against him.
“We call for an investigation by the ANC’s committee on ethics and members’ interests, Sars and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) into the allegations,” spokesman Patrick Craven said.
The DA said it would write to Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, asking her to investigate the latest allegations levelled against Malema.
“It most certainly is in the public interest to know whether political leaders are involved in corrupt, self-serving practices that promote the interests of a privileged few while the greater majority of South Africans continue to live in poverty,” said the party’s Dianne Kohler Barnard.
Sars should investigate possible tax evasion and do a lifestyle audit to “discover the truth” about Malema’s financial affairs, Craven said.
A complaint was laid against Malema in accordance with the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act of 2004, AfriForum’s chief executive, Kallie Kriel, told reporters outside the Brooklyn police station in Pretoria on Sunday.
The act deals with corrupt activities relating to receiving or offering of unauthorised gratification.
“If a person’s lifestyle is disappropriate to a known income, then it warrants an investigation. We want police to have a look at it,” he said.
“We can’t have people that use political contacts to enrich themselves at the cost of the poor.”
He denied that the organisation had a grudge against Malema.
“If this is seen to be a grudge, so be it. This is in the public interest. Justice should prevail,” Kriel said.
The City Press reported on Sunday that Malema was the sole trustee of a secret family trust, registered in the name of his five-year-old son, which he allegedly used to finance his lavish lifestyle.
According to the newspaper, the Ratanang Family Trust was registered at the Office of the Master of the High Court in Pretoria in 2008, just weeks after Malema was first elected president of the youth league.
Citing two “independent, well-placed sources with knowledge of Malema’s financial dealings”, City Press said the trust was being used “by the youth leader and his benefactors” to fund his lifestyle.
“Thousands of rands” were deposited into the account on a regular basis, said the report, quoting the sources.
“Frequent deposits are being made from different banks, especially in Limpopo.”
City Press said Malema had denied that the trust was being used to launder illicit funds, but “declined to divulge its purpose or bank balance”.
The youth league’s spokesman, Floyd Shivambu, was not immediately available for comment.
The ANC national spokesman, Jackson Mthembu, said Malema would have to explain himself to the party.
Mthembu accused Afriforum of “grandstanding”, but acknowledged that the allegations against Malema were “very serious”.
“Any allegations by any one of us are hurting us. Corruption is something we take very seriously. We will not close our eyes to corruption. We always say nobody is above the law,” said Mthembu.
He said ANC leaders had not yet discussed the matter and that it was only “fair for Julius to explain himself” before any action was taken.
The allegation that a businessman had made a vehicle valued at R1.2 million available to Malema and had done him a number of other favours also forms part of AfriForum’s complaint.
On Saturday Malema sought an urgent court interdict to stop City Press publishing a report on the trust, but this was dismissed by Judge Colin Lamont in the Johannesburg High Court.
Judge Lamont ruled that Malema was a public figure and that publishing the story was in the public interest.
Furthermore, he had found the evidence contained in the City Press story to be “credible”.
Malema’s legal team reportedly argued that his public image could be seriously damaged if details of the trust fund were published. The City Press had opposed the application.
Earlier this week Malema said that it was “nobody’s business” where he got his money from.
He called a media briefing at the time to respond to a Sunday Independent report last weekend that he was building himself a R16m house in Joburg’s posh Sandown suburb. - Pretoria News