Julius Malema blasted for ‘dodging criminal case’ after tax probe

We’re sure there’s a joke about two Marxists walking into a bar (and both of them refusing to pay for the beer), but it looks like SACP leader Solly Mapaila and EFF chief Julius Malema are more likely to walk into a boxing ring one day soon, following comments shared by TimesLive.

Solly Mapaila vs Julius Malema: A war of words turns ugly

The hard-left politicians have been at each other’s throats over the Pravin Gordhan issue. Malema has relentlessly upped his campaign to get the minister booted out of office, following a duel with the Public Protector in court. Mapaila, meanwhile, has fought the corner for the ANC veteran – and he’s not above airing Juju’s dirty laundry.

As we recently re-capped, a group of politicians and businessmen close to Malema were able to get preferential treatment when it came to securing land plots in Limpopo. The sales were also linked to the On Point engineering company, which featured in a tender fraud report issued by Thuli Madonsela.

What is On Point, and how does it implicate Julius Malema?

The group were accused of ploughing money into the Ratanang Family Trust, co-owned by Julius Malema. The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) eventually dropped the charges against the Limpopo-born leader. But Mapaila is incensed by this perceived ‘injustice’, and says the EFF’s current beef with Pravin Gordhan is linked to this case:

“The interest of the EFF in comrade Pravin is that it was under PG’s leadership when Ratanang Trust, owned by Malema, was investigated by SARS and by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, and was found to have been involved in malfeasance and fraud. There was one beneficiary of that trust: Julius Malema.”

“That is the point the media should be pursuing as to what finally happened with that issue. At some point there was supposed to be a criminal case but the people at the NPA, the majority of them were corrupted, so this case did not go anywhere.”

Solly Mapaila

Another court battle with AfriForum looms for EFF leader

AfriForum have also joined the chase. Last month, the group confirmed that they will approach the courts with a mandamus application, in order to force the National Prosecuting Authority into taking action against the firebrand politician over the On Point case.

It seems the issue – which long laid dormant – could soon be revived. There’s even a back-up plan if this gets them nowhere: AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit also indicated in a letter to the NPA that the organisation will apply for nolle prosequi certificates to privately prosecute Julius Malema themselves, should the crime-fighting organisation decide not to.