Last year, I attended a youth debate held just before the upcoming 2014 elections. I was in the presence of the DA’s Mmusi Maimane, who gave the most incredible, genuine, heartfelt speech. He even shed a tear or two about how passionate he is in wanting to make a change for South Africa. With Helen Zille no longer running for DA leader, Maimane is the leading candidate to take the role – much to Julius Malema’s delight. Read why below. Methinks Malema underestimates what Maimane can do for this country. – Tracey Ruff
Giordano Stolley, News24
Durban – Helen Zille’s decision to step down as DA leader has left the EFF as the only credible opposition to the ruling ANC.
That is according to EFF leader Julius Malema, who said during an interview on the radio station Gagasi FM on Thursday that Mmusi Maimane, the leading candidate to take control of the DA, was better suited to being a priest.
“Now with Helen Zille gone, we are alone. It’s us and the ANC,” he said during the hour-long interview.
“I think that Mmusi can make a very good priest. He is a priest; he’s not a politician. We are over the moon as the EFF because we will not have a serious competition from Helen to Mmusi. It’s now us and the ANC.”
Malema said he did not owe the South African Revenue Service (SARS) any money and that there was no contradiction with him demanding that President Jacob Zuma pay back the money spent on upgrades to his Nkandla residence.
Malema said that he had paid his tax and that the demand was for Zuma to repay taxpayer’s money.
“All what I owed them, I paid them. I paid R4m and then with the assets they have taken from me they should have collected from me R7.5m.”
He told Gagasi FM listeners that he believed that SARS was “politically driven”.
“SARS used to be the most respected institution. Now it is on record that SARS is corrupt and that SARS gets involved in illegal activities, including tapping phones of people, including leaking tax affairs of people to the media, including spying on other politicians on behalf of other politicians.”
He said that he had been required to pay his tax, but unlike Zuma, he had not taken money from the taxpayer.
“The reality is that I paid them and I didn’t take taxpayers money. I’m paying tax. You pay your tax. I pay my tax. The man [Zuma] went to take from the tax coffers. I didn’t take from the tax coffers,” he said.
