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Julius Malema and EFF prepared to take Zuma to court

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Julius Malema. Picture: Jacquelyn Guillen
Julius Malema. Picture: Jacquelyn Guillen

The “Gupta emails” have bolstered the Economic Freedom Fighters’ long-held belief regarding the corruption in President Jacob Zuma’s government, said the party’s leader Julius Malema on Thursday.

“Nothing demonstrates the self-destructive mode of the ruling party than the emails that have been made public by several media outlets in the past two weeks,” Malema said.

The emails spurred the EFF to send a letter to Zuma demanding that he withdraw his review application of the state capture report so that “South Africa can know the truth without his delay tactics”.

The president was supposed to have appointed a commission of inquiry into state capture by the Guptas in December 2016.

But Zuma issued a review application in the North Gauteng High Court, which is now scheduled for October.

Should Zuma not withdraw his review application in the next few days, Malema warned that the EFF would approach the courts.

“We believe that at the core of the emails and Gupta leaks is evidence that those who run government today have betrayed their country and facilitated a coup by handing over constitutional decision-making powers to a foreign family.

“In a normal democracy, this unpatriotic betrayal is uncommon or even worse than treason.”

According to Malema, the EFF possessed all the leaked emails and intended to compile a dossier to be submitted to Parliament.

Parliament would then be responsible for impeaching any and all implicated MPs in addition to the president.

The authenticity of the emails and their content was not a question, Malema said.

Instead, the focus needed to be on the money and how it was being moved.

The EFF issued a document allegedly outlining a timeline of corruption at Transnet, resulting in tenders given to locomotive suppliers at a total cost inflated by R17.4 billion.

The document also allegedly implicated Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba, who was minister of public enterprises at the time.

The party intended to lay criminal charges against Gigaba, who Malema called a “facilitator of corruption” in state-owned enterprises.

The EFF also condemned the Democratic Alliance for not suspending Helen Zille as the premier of the Western Cape which, Malema said, undermined the effort to “take our government from the hands of the corrupt ANC”.

“We are not going to associate with a party that protects colonialism and apartheid.

“The same thing we demand from the ANC, the same thing we march together as opposition parties, we must demand from each other.”

But, according to Malema, the EFF alone couldn’t be responsible for exposing corruption in their “attempt to prevent South Africa from becoming another failed state.”

It is also the responsibility of ordinary South Africans.

Anyone who knows about the ANC’s criminal activities but continues to vote for the party makes themselves accomplices, Malema said.

“You enjoy the crime of the ANC and you justify it through the story that they fought for your freedom.

Because they fought for your freedom, they have a right to steal – that’s what South Africans are saying.”

“We must stop blaming Zuma. We must start blaming South Africans for doing nothing even when clear evidence of corruption is presented before them.”

Malema urged South Africans to “to go to the streets” in protests that are mass-led, not politically aligned or aligned to non-governmental organisations.

“Every individual in South Africa should say: Not in my name.

"I cannot sit back and allow the Guptas to steal from my country.”

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