Johannesburg – Two of the EFF’s most senior leaders, Julius Malema and Floyd Shivambu, stand accused of abusing party funds for their own use – again.
The party’s suspended Gauteng chief financial officer, Wiekus Kotze, made these damning allegations at a media conference in Sandton on Tuesday.
This follows former convict Gayton McKenzie’s claims in February, accusing Malema of bankrupting the EFF through his alleged abuse of party credit cards and extorting a monthly payment of R30 000 over and above the R85 000 he is paid every month as an MP.
On Tuesday, Malema’s friend-turned-foe Kenny Kunene launched a scathing attack on the pair, accusing Malema and Shivambu of being despots.
Kotze and Kunene laid bare at the media conference what they claimed were Malema and Shivambu’s wanton abuse of EFF funds for self-enrichment.
Kotze was suspended in November last year on allegations of financial irregularity.
He is also a former AgangSA member who was suspended on similar allegations.
On Tuesday, Kotze turned the tables on Malema and Shivambu, listing a wide range of alleged financial irregularities against them.
He alleged, among others, that:
* Malema issued an instruction that the EFF should give him a credit card to the value of R30 000, which has now been increased to R35 000, to be used to finance his tax evasion bill with the SA Revenue Service.
* Malema obtained a second credit card with a R100 000 limit.
* Malema colluded with some party members in Gauteng to bribe him (Kotze) so that he could doctor the party’s financial statements before their submission to Parliament.
* Malema used funds from the credit cards on his trip to Maputo, where he held a clandestine meeting with ANC leaders.
* Shivambu has opened offshore bank accounts in the Far East, using party funds.
* About 80 percent of the EFF’s transactions were not accompanied by the requisite invoices.
Some of these allegations were recently made by Kunene’s confidant and convicted fraudster, McKenzie.
The EFF’s suspended MPs – Andile Mngxitama, Khanyisile Litchfield-Tshabalala, Mpho Ramakatsa and Lucky Twala – made similar allegations in February.
“Let me explain how Julius pays his tax. Actually, Julius does not pay tax. The EFF does it and, by extension, the public is paying Julius’s tax. In effect, he has spun it in such a way that Sars is paying itself,” Kotze said in a prepared statement.
“My suspension by the leaders of the EFF has been utterly without basis and illegal,” Kotze said, adding that he had opened a case of “financial mismanagement” against Malema and other EFF leaders.
Kunene branded Malema “a modern-day Hitler and Stalin”.
“I am here to tell you that if Julius Malema becomes the president of this country, I pack and go. (But) I don’t fear Malema. If it means saving this country from the worst dictator of the 21st century, let it be,” Kunene said.
He accused journalists of not doing enough to uncover corruption against Malema’s EFF. “I am saying to you, if Julius takes over this country, you will not have these jobs. You are not seeing the signs.”
Attempts to get comment from Malema and Shivambu were unsuccessful.
EFF spokesman Mbuyiseni Ndlozi dismissed both Kunene and Kotze as fraudsters.
