One has to argue that the timing, as is usually the case with EFF leader Julius Malema, is impeccable. He ended the year off on a high, closing off with a fairly successful trip to the United Kingdom, where he wooed business with his charm. It was a quiet January but the month of February has started in earnest. Malema gave one of those press briefings we’ve come to expect. He held nothing back, and with Jacob Zuma delivering the State of the Nation this week, he’s given the public some good insight into what he’ll be targeting on the night. The speaker of the National Assembly Baleka Mbete, has said she’ll retain order, but be assured it’ll be a fantastic contest. Malema spoke about the Gupta’s, Nkandla and luring investment. But has he gone too far this time? Below is the full transcript of his speech, the day Malema banned Gupta-owned media from EFF media briefings. A great read. – Stuart Lowman
All right. Sanibonani, molo, and dumelang. My name is Mbuyiseni Ndlozi. Thanks very much for the full attendance that we have here today. Without any further ado, I’m going to introduce the members of the proceedings. On my far right is Commissar Rawula. He’s a Member of Parliament and he’s also a member of the Central Command Team – Thembinkosi Rawula. Next to him is the Treasurer-General of the Economic Freedom Fighters, Commissar Magdalene Moonsamy. Next to her is the Secretary-General of the Economic Freedom Fighters, Commissar Godrich Gardee. Then on my immediate right is Commissar Leigh-Ann Mathys. She is also a member of the National Council of Provinces and a member of the Central Command Team.
Next to her is the Deputy President of the EFF, Commissar Floyd Nyiko Shivambu. Then, the President and Commander-in-Chief, Julius Sello Malema. Thank you very much for the attendance.
Julius Malema: Thanks very much. Let me thank the leadership of the EFF, the members of the media, and the public at large. We are here because the corrupt President of South Africa has now made an admission that he is corrupt and therefore he is going to pay back the money, which was spent on unnecessary things in his homestead in Nkandla. They’ve made a proposed settlement, which they are expecting us to respond to but in his typical way of trying to control everything and influence institutions of the State (unduly so), he then took the copy of the proposed settlement to court in an attempt to influence judges. In a judicial process, if there are parties that are involved in litigation, they communicate amongst themselves without involving judges. Zuma being Zuma, writes to us and copies judges so that he can influence judges, so that when we arrive before the courts the judges already see him as a reasonable man.
However, because the judiciary in South Africa has always rejected the ANC control, then they responded and said they are not interested because that is a matter, which is between the parties involved in litigation. The only thing that we must do is to tell them by Friday if there is anything. How we propose to settle is between us and therefore, they do not get involved. I’m happy that they were able to see this crook (even before)…that he is attempting to things are unacceptable. Our response to Jacob Zuma is very clear and it is simplified. We are not going to agree to any settlement, which doesn’t reaffirm the powers of the Public Protector and (2) that the remedial actions of the Public Protector are binding. This is not a case between Zuma and the EFF. This is a case to reaffirm the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa and to protect Chapter 9 institutions.
Since Zuma insulted the Public Protector and the powers of the Public Protector, that office is no longer respected as it was before. People think that they can just treat what the Public Protector recommends as mere recommendations, which are not binding on their part. They do so because the President has given them that power. Mathole Motshekga has given them that power and all those drum majorettes that are attending there in Parliament. Zuma destroyed the Executive. Zuma destroyed Parliament because of selfishness. He said he never asked for upgrades. He said he would never pay a cent. Today, he comes and says, “I will pay” because he thinks that by agreeing to pay, he will buy time. This is what Zuma is doing. He says in the settlement, “Let these people resolve this matter within 90 days.” We must check from the 9th.
What will be the 90th day? If the 90th day is somewhere in June then by the 90th day, Zuma’s people from the Auditor-General’s office and from Finance are going to ask for extension. By the time that extension comes to an end, the elections will be gone. Then he’s going to start his own tricks. By the time we engage with new tricks, we are in 2019 and he’s out of office. He thinks he can play with us like that. Part of what we want in the settlement is that the matter must be implemented within 60 days. There isn’t much to be done there. The chicken run is there. How much was spent by Public Works? How much will Zuma pay? The Amphitheatre and the cattle kraal…all those things are there and they are not limited to all those things that are mentioned there. Zuma shouldn’t think that only those things that he mentions in his settlement are non-security features. There are a lot of them.
The settlement must amongst others, include the President agreeing that those things mentioned by him – Amphitheatre, cattle kraal, chicken run, and the swimming pool – are not security features. We don’t need an investigation, which is still going to check if those things are security features or not. No, we must all agree that those are not security fees and therefore, he must pay for those. Not that a boring movie that was arranged for the Minister of Police, demonstrating that a swimming pool can be a fire-pool. We don’t want anymore, that type of report where people are going to come and say, “No, this is a fire-pool. It’s not a swimming pool” and “This is how it is used”. No. We must all agree that it’s a swimming pool and we must agree before the court, that it’s a swimming pool and not a security and therefore, the President must pay all of those. Otherwise, we must go to court.
He must agree that he was in breach of Oath of Office because in everything else he did, he didn’t protect the Public Purse – something that is expected from the sitting President. That is our standpoint with regard to the 9th, but we’ve got another demand. The demand is that the Gupta’s must leave the country with immediate effect. We are tired of talking about Gupta’s and therefore, we are going to take practical action which will involve – amongst others – persuading that the Gupta’s must leave South Africa. We cannot have a situation where the corrupt people are known where they are and what they do, and no-one takes an action about that. The least we can do is to Tweet about it. That’s a reflection of a lazy society, which is scared of authority. We must take action. We must take action against corruption. It has reached the levels where we will no longer tolerate it anymore. It’s a battle.
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It’s a war against Gupta’s. We want to advise the Gupta television and newspapers that they must no longer come to the EFF events because they are not safe. We don’t want to see ANN7 anywhere. We don’t want to see New Age anywhere in our events. We’re warning you. We do this peacefully. It’s not tampering with media freedom. Those institutions are a product of corrupt activities in South Africa and they are used to perpetuate corruption. That is not media. That’s propaganda machinery of a corrupt cartel. That’s propaganda machinery of the mafia. We’re not saying we’re doing this because they wrote anything bad about us. You’ve all written bad things about us. You’re still welcomed but propagandists of corruption and protectors of corruption will not be tolerated.
Our sisters and brothers in the Gupta firms, we love you so much. We don’t want you to be casualties. This is not for you. We are going for the enemy now. We are going for the enemy. We cannot guarantee the safety of those who are working in those studios and printing factories of the New Age and ANN7. We cannot guarantee those who are working for the Gupta’s. We cannot have a situation where we are controlled by a family. We cannot allow a situation where South Africa is colonised by a family. We will do to the Gupta’s what we did to the colonisers and Apartheid. We didn’t send them love letters. We engaged them directly. It’s time to engage the Gupta’s directly. The more we talk, the more they become more corrupt and they do not care about South Africa. I’ve seen people marching during #feesmustfall – celebrities and personalities.
They were marching because that target was not aimed at State power. It was institutions of higher learning and therefore, they are not doing tenders in the institutions of higher learning and it was easy for them to march against the universities because that’s not where they get their bread from. They wanted to create an impression that they are genuine, patriotic South Africans. We challenge them now. If they were genuine about a true democratic South Africa free from any oppression and free from anything that undermines the prosperity of this country, let’s see you on the 9th of February. Anyone who created an impression that you are a revolutionary, i.e. you can take on the State and you can confront police because those police were not protecting those who give you tenders, but they were protecting institutes of higher learning. We are now going to the real power. Come and join the real revolution.
Let those who were saying ‘Zuma must fall’ and ‘we’re ready to put money to protest during the holiday’…let them come to the real action. Not artificial or cosmetic protest of people who are marching who are not committed, but are just passing time. If you are not just passing tie and you meant what you were saying on the 16th of December by Zuma falling, the 9th of February is the day. If you Tweet about it or write about it on Facebook whilst sitting comfortably in your bed and call that a revolutionary action, it is not. Action is on the 9th of February so stop Tweeting from your bed. Come and Tweet from the picket lines. Let’s all go to the streets. Let’s all demonstrate that we are tired of corruption and the clear examples of corruption: Zuma and the Gupta’s. In summarizing the two, they are called Zupta’s.
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The Zupta’s must fall on the 9th of February. The ANC must fall. I listen to pretentious people and cowards saying, “No. It is not the ANC. It is an individual.” That’s a coward’s statement. What did the ANC do about it? Gwede says, “Gupta’s are not corrupting. ANC are corrupting individuals.” The ANC is constituted by corrupt individuals. That’s why it is an organisation. It is the coming together of corrupt individuals. What did the ANC do about it – if it’s not the ANC? If the ANC is not promoting it, why is the ANC so scared of the President? I’m not scared of Zuma, neither are we scared of the Executive or Parliament. We’re not scared of anyone. We are scared of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa because without that Constitution, we are nothing. We are told that Zuma will pay. Some of you will start looking around, saying that we’re prophets. We are not prophets. We know what we’re doing.
We are not playing. We don’t make jokes. When we declare a war, we fight it to the bitter end. This is not the end. Zuma must go down. Zuma must leave the office of the President. Before he speaks on the 11th of February, he will have to start by explaining why he removed (that’s the first sentence)… If he doesn’t start by saying why he removed Minister of Finance…stop there. He must start by explaining it. A matter that has cost the country billions of Rands. We cannot lose billions and nothing happens. All of you behave like its business as usual. Billions of Rands. This is a man who must come and address the nation and say he is the President of this nation, and he’ll do everything to protect it whereas he’s destroying it at the same time and no-one is doing anything to stop this man from collapsing this country. We are not scared of being beaten up. It will not be for the first time. It will not be for the last time. We are prepared to die in protection of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.
We formed the EFF. Not because we were beaten by the ANC but because we love South Africa. We’ll do everything to make this country work. We are the only party that has a practical plan to confront corruption and white supremacy. They go together. White supremacists are happy that this country’s falling apart in the hands of black people and we’re not going to allow Zuma to make us another black failure – another failed African state. Anyone who loves this country must now rise and say, “Not in my name. It will not happen in my name.” Let the ANC members in their colours who always condemn the Gupta’s come on the 9th of February and say, “Not in our name.” Let South Africans come on the 9th of February and say, “Not in our name.” South Africa is not going to be another failed African state – not under our watch. Generations to come will blame us for this mess and therefore, we have to do something about it so there’s no deal. There will never be a deal if Zuma does not meet the requirements outlined earlier on. Thank you very much.
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Question 1: If the judges ruled in accordance with your application, does that sort out the matter of Nkandla? Paying back the money is one of the issues under legal action by the Public Protector. Is it just your focus on the fact that an amount must be paid or are there other aspects of the Nkandla matter such as you’ve mentioned before, i.e. the issue of the [inaudible 0:21:57.8] that has been chased? Are you still going to pursue that? With regards to SONA, can you explain to us what exactly you mean by ‘the President must stop if his opening line is not about the firing of the Minister of Finance’? Will you be raising an objection? How can we expect that to proceed? Thirdly, on the issues of the Gupta family: you said that they must leave the country. You haven’t explained how that is supposed to happen but you said that journalists and media workers must not attend EFF events because you can’t guarantee their safety. Are you basically saying there’s now a physical threat against South African journalists? Thank you.
Question 2: I just want to hear you views on the current situation in the country. Businesses and investors are moving out of the country at the moment. What are your thoughts on that? Thank you.
Question 3: I just wanted to know, in terms of the technical argument. In the court cases, the EFF doesn’t say who should determine the amount, etcetera? Is the EFF going to leave it entirely up to the court? That’s basically the bone of contention. Who should determine how much should be paid, etcetera? Have you decided an amount you will tell to the court? Are you accepting the President in terms of the amended settlement that the Treasury and the Auditor-General should decide that amount? Secondly, have you written to the State Attorney’s office in terms of the new demands and are the Gupta’s also part of that matter? Thirdly, could you perhaps give some indication as to the plan/war against the Gupta family? Is there a plan in terms of physical action?
Question 4: Are you surprised that the President has again gone beyond the recommendations of the Public Protector and has now introduced the Auditor-General to be part of the team that determines the amount to be paid? The Presidency statement indicates that the offer was sent to both the EFF and the DA back in November. Why are you guys only reacting to this now, after this letter was sent to the Constitutional Court and have you guys been in discussions with the DA in regard to taking this matter forward?
Question 5: Do you plan to disrupt the President’s speech? How has that changed now with the recent views on the statement of Nkandla – the statement that he will now pay back the money?
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Julius Malema: Well, if the judges rule in our favour that Zuma must pay the money, we will have to wait for the day that Zuma pays the money, the terms of payment, and how that is going to be done with outlined different methods of payment i.e. eWallet etcetera. From there, once he has paid we’ll call you like this to announce the next action, because that is not the end. It is actually the beginning of bigger things to come.
If the President doesn’t start by explaining what happened with the removal of Nene then we are coming in. How are we coming in? Don’t worry. It’s going to be coming inside with Zuma in there so it’s going to be coming in from the EFF.
I just explained to you. The Gupta’s are not in the media business. Anyone working for the Gupta’s is actually perpetuating corruption. When we said we’d dismantle the Apartheid regime and make it ungovernable and unworkable, we meant everything including the agents of the Apartheid regime – everything. The infrastructure, the personality, the police, and the soldiers – everything. Don’t make out that it’s a threat to South African journalists. Don’t involve yourself unless you are working for them quietly. If you’re not, it has nothing to do with South African journalists. We don’t regard that thing as journalism. That is a cartel. That’s mafia. We can choose who comes to us. You are not going to impose yourselves on us. We can choose who comes to us. We are not going to allow Gupta’s to masquerade as legitimate businesspeople when they’re not. They’re not.
By giving them interviews and entertaining them, you’re actually legitimising them. They are not a legitimate body. South Africans who think they take themselves seriously – Ministers and personalities – they go, line up at a Gupta dealer to eat food that was prepared with corrupt hands, and still come to us and say ‘you are clean’ when you have eaten at the dinner of the Gupta’s. Curry. It’s wrong. We are not going to allow South Africa to be sold over a plate of curry. We’re not part of that mess and we are going to take physical action about that. We don’t theorise. When we said Zuma must pay, we took action, including taking physical action. It’s all peaceful, like we are doing now. Gupta journalists, please don’t come to events. It’s so peaceful. How you react to it will determine how that campaign is going to be carried forward.
Everything else that is going to happen to the Gupta’s is going to happen peacefully. The reaction of the State will determine if that will remain peaceful, but we are going to do it peacefully. How the Gupta’s leave is none of my business. I don’t know if they came through Waterkloof or some unidentifiable landing strip in a farm somewhere. I don’t know. They will make a plan but they are not welcome here. We don’t regard them as one of us because of their disrespect for South Africa’s Constitution and the people of South Africa.
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The reason why we’re taking the action we are taking against the President in Parliament is to say to the investors, “We’re trying to restore order. South Africa has institutions that are stable. South Africa has men and women who are prepared to work hard. There’s just this one man whose working with one family to collapse the whole country.” Nene was fired because he didn’t implement the actions that were instructed to him by the Gupta’s and Zuma on the nuclear deal. Anything they Gupta’s want, they get. It doesn’t matter whether they get that at the expense of this country – as long as they want it, they get it. At the beginning, I thought Zuma didn’t owe money. They just give him some small change. The information is such that they’re giving him real money – real money. Zuma says he’s going to pay.
We’re talking millions and millions of Rands here. He must tell us where he’s going to get the money from. Where is he going to get the money from? He doesn’t have that money. Non-existent bond… Zuma must tell us and the whole of South Africa. For God’s sake, he’s our President. He must be transparent. Where is the man going to get the money from if it’s not from this corrupt family? We must say to the whole world, the South Africans, and all those who love South Africa that we’re doing something about it. Investors are leaving because of uncertainties, which have been created by a man who’s not unstable. A man just removed a Minister. A country loses billions. The ANC does nothing. I was in the forefront of the removal of Thabo Mbeki. I looked at the situation of Mbeki, I looked at Zuma’s situation and I was asking myself, “What is it that Thabo did, which was so extreme and worse than what Zuma did?”
There are all the reasons out there to recall Zuma. The ANC’s not doing it and somebody’s going to come to me and say, “No, it’s not the ANC. It’s an individual.” You are a coward. You say that because you’re a coward. You are scared. Zwane, we warned you. We warned the whole of South Africa that this is a Gupta appointment and the good thing is that we are not lazy to write. We wrote it down. It’s there for reference. We warned you. A Minister goes and negotiates and individual deal for a particular business/company. He comes back and all of that is exposed. Nothing happens to that Minister. The Executive Code of Ethics: he just undermines it like that. The President does nothing. The ANC does nothing. Remember, this is the ANC that said (in Mangaung), “When there are strong allegations against a particular member, we’ll take action.”
Zwane’s office agrees. Zwane was introduced to the Gupta’s to negotiate a deal for the Gupta family against the Code of Ethics. Nothing happens. Nothing happens. Until today, nothing happens. A certain family has an advantage over the rest of established business in South Africa because of its political connection. We can’t allow that, we can’t sit back and allow that to happen. No we’re not in the business of deciding which amount Zuma must pay. Those features are there. They must go investigate them. This is how much it cost us. This is how much Zuma must pay with interest. No the remedial actions of the Public Protector are clear. I’m coming to that point. When we say, and I don’t know why that question is arising in fact because we said the Public Protector’s remedial actions are binding.
Everything else ranging that Public Protector said must happen, must happen, everything. Not only should I pay back the money. Ministers must be reprimanded and all of those things. Everything the Public Protector said must happen must happen, so we don’t have a problem. We’re not going to have a problem with the Minister of Police. Had he done the right thing and what the Public Protector directed, there was not going to be a problem. To arrive and say “Chicken run, this is how much it will cost, this is how much the president must pay”, not to go and investigate whether a chicken runs, it’s a security feature or not, no that we have a problem with. We don’t care whether Zuma pays two bob or five or cent or [vernacular 00:01:52] or anything, as long as he pays something in line with what the Public Protector said must happen.
It’s not about us. We are not the Public Protector. We do not have the power to say this is how things must happen. The institution of the state which we must respect has made that determination and we must stick to that determination of the institution of the state.
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Is there a responsibility to Zuma’s offer for EFF?
There’s somebody who says Zuma gave us that in November. Those are privileged people who have access to Zuma. We never received that in November. We all know that SABC enjoys that privilege so we don’t have that access. We have never received anything from Zuma. This is the first time. We would have shared that with you and we would have responded by November. We are not like Zuma we don’t hide things. We put things in front of everyone to see what the EFF is doing. There’s no such thing as Zuma giving us the response. We are responding now because Zuma just gave us those proposals. Remember when we started, Zuma was saying the first response was that the personal court must not eve entertain us. That was his response and we dealt with it even at that time so there shouldn’t be a problem.
Is the Gupta demand part of the proposed court…?
No, there is no Gupta matter which is before the court. It’s a political programme. There’s no Gupta, there’s no judge who will listen to anything to do with Gupta. That’s our issue, the Gupta’s face to face. We are not afraid of them.
Are you surprised by the new inclusion of the Auditor General?
Zuma has the right to propose to anyone if he wants. ZZ got involved. It’s his business, as long as the court will never agree with that, remedial action of the Public Protector.
Are you engaging the DA on the offer?
We’re not liaising with the DA about this matter at all and neither will we liaise with the DA about a coalition. I saw something saying there are secret talks. There is no such thing. We will never join the DA in court. The DA will join us. We will never be led by my money. We are my money’s leaders. My money is a young man. We have been in this game for a very long time. I can’t be led by my money. My struggle credentials speak for themselves. I’m not going to be led by a person from church just straight into politics, a priest straight into politics without going through the ranks. We grew up in this business of politics. We’ll never be led by my money, never. We’re leading it. You must see what happens in Parliament. He comes after us. There are times where he abandons the accent and the priest attitude and assumes the real fighting spirit inspired by the EFF.
I saw my money tweeting in the early hours of the morning and doing all sorts of things. I was not shaken, neither were we shaken ourselves. We know what we are doing. My money has asked the constitutional court to join us. We didn’t do the same. We’ll never join him in any court, never. We will never be led by the DA, which wants to bring colonialism and white supremacy through the back door by fronting a black person who will never be in any business that seeks to bring white people’s rule in South Africa, never. It will never happen.
Even if we are going to be in a coalition with the DA and the rest of the opposition parties, it will happen on our terms because we are the only party in South Africa with a clear revolutionary programme. You must expropriate the land. You must nationalise. You must fight for free education. Those are the conditions, non-negotiable. No one can negotiate the seven cardinal pillars of the EFF. Anyone that works with the EFF will have to meet those requirements. Otherwise we are ready to oppose all municipalities. We are not going to compromise principle for political expediency. We know what we are doing. We are going to take this country. We are going to lead this country. Watch this space. We’re not playing.
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I’m going to take another round which begins with… This side is a bit… I must say what?
You must say it’s the last round.
It looks like you like many rounds.
Did I understand correctly? You’re booting out all negotiations for coalitions for the upcoming elections?
No, I’m saying we’ll talk to anyone who wants to talk to us. We will go into a coalition with anyone who wants to go into a coalition with us but you’ll have to meet the non-negotiable seven cardinal pillars of the EFF. Anything that doesn’t speak to what we represent will never receive a response from us.
Two things I’m unclear of: what exactly on Tuesday, the 9th are we marching for and (2) what does collective action, or EFF against the Gupta’s actually look at? What it is saying?
Recently, President Zuma said that he is not a friend of the Gupta’s as people may pronounce it. Categorically, he said it. What is your response on this matter and Mr Malema, are you scared of the Gupta’s media, the ANNN7’s and the others? It’s a matter of confronting them. If you can’t confront them then they can get whatever you are delivering to the people, rather than throwing them out of the house?
I would like to find out what do you say about the fact that there was allegedly manipulating to the SIU’s reports regarding the President and his family to keep them safe and that the report has been sent to us?
What do you mean by fiscal action against the Gupta’s?
With regards to the accountability that you want to sustain when the president enables the State of the Nation first: aren’t you perhaps scared that you are violating the newly proposed rules in Parliament in terms of behaviour? Secondly, regarding SARS: we’ve seen that SARS is planning to reinstate charges against you. Are you perhaps petrified?
In your personal capacity, you were surprised by this, about crowned President Jacob Zuma and whether you ever regret being part of the movement that brought him to power?
I think they have answered my question.
No, they have not answered you. Somebody covered you because no one answered.
On Tuesday we’re marching to the constitutional court for the court application we have made that Zuma must implement the remedial action of the Public Protector and (2) we’re marching against the Gupta corruption which is happening in this country. As to how that will play itself and all that, just ready yourself for action for the 9th. You will see what will happen then. That is with regards to the march.
Yes, you will see it when it happens, what the action against the Gupta’s looks like. Just stick next to him and say, “You must never lose [0:48:19.0 vernacular] because you may miss a lot of things.
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Zuma says he’s not a friend of Gupta’s. What is your comment?
No, it’s not true and none of you challenges him to say that it’s not true. Where have you ever seen a state president sitting at a dinner from opening act until the last act with no significant role to play? He just sits there at the back like a puppet waiting for the puppet master to action it and then he gets unleashed to go and give the award of the person of the year or something like that and then he must give to the ex-wife and then they have not even rehearsed how they are going to give each other and then they are not sure whether they must hug or shake hands or such awkward moments because the Gupta’s have staged it in such a way that the Person of the Year must be Nkosazana. So, they launch her campaign for the President of South Africa and they think we are stupid.
They are his friends. He will never do that with anyone. Just to sit in jail without any role to play… Sit there, be given some water, etcetera and those who were close to him say there was a point where he was very irritated because they kept on feeding him with water, even when he has not asked for water and said ‘no, but I didn’t ask for water. I can’t be fed water here like I’m an animal’. He gets irritated because he has no role to play. He’s just sitting there.
That’s what you do at the wedding of your friend. You just sit and relax because you know you are here to support your main man or your friend, family. We all do that as political leaders, we don’t expect him to play any role. No Chief, if it’s so bad, they’ll come, and all those type of things. No, you must speak. No do food. No, no, no I’m just there to support you. You do that with your friends. You can’t take the whole cabinet with its president if you are not friends with those people.
Is EFF afraid of the Gupta media?
No, he says “Mr Malema, are you scared of Gupta media?” For sure you don’t know me. I’ve been in this field for a very long time. I’m not scared of anything. Nothing scares me. Not even BBC. You can ask them. Nothing scares me. These are political non-starters. They don’t exist. I wouldn’t be afraid of Gupta’s. You say to me, “Why can’t you just leave them to carry what you want to communicate to the public?” I don’t need them to carry anything, I say. I will say it myself to the public. I’m on the ground. I speak to people directly. I don’t need BBC or ANN7 to do that for me.
I grew up and became what I am because I had direct contact with the people. That’s what I believe in. I’m coming here because there have been many requests from different media houses for interviews and the best thing is to call a press conference and communicate. We’re not media hungry. We are on the ground. That’s why you don’t see us. We are in villages. We’re working very hard quietly because every time the ANC hears through the media that we were here, then they go there and try to undo our work. We are no longer communicating. We’re just hitting the ground.
I don’t need media to communicate with the people of South Africa, neither am I afraid of the Gupta’s or their media. The SIU report is manipulated. It’s clear. We said that report is manipulated in parliament and I know for a fact that I came across a genuine report, which exposed all those shenanigans and those who gave me the real report pleaded that I should not even speak about it or mention it to anyone because they are the only ones who have the report. I say this without doubt that SIU was manipulated and that’s why the chap, immediately after that he was seeking some form of exit because it was just against their conscience. They couldn’t allow going on in that position after seeing what is really happening with the state institutions.
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Are we not contravening any parliament rule on SONA when we ask asked the question about Nene?
Absolutely not, I don’t know maybe you have a better understanding of the new rules, but there’s no new rule which states that you can’t call a point off order, a point of privilege and that sort of thing. There is no rule that protects Zuma but what Zuma needs to know, for the remaining years, for as long as he has not resigned as a president, the state of the nation we are going to share it with him. He is not worth it being the respect which must be given to a sitting president of the Republic and if we dare give him that respect he will think that there’s nothing wrong with what he is doing.
Part of what we are doing is to speak to Zuma’s conscience, that we’re treating you like this because you have not respected the office of the President therefore you are not worth the respect of any of us. The day he respects the office of the President, that’s the day we’ll respect him. Otherwise, SONA was sharing it with him and he has brought the third players which are the white sheds. It’s Zuma, it’s us, it’s the white sheds, and we’ll share that day on that day of the state of the nation. There is no SARS which has taken me to court. I have taken SARS to court. Journalists of South Africa, you are all here, all of you. You say SARS took me to court. SARS has not taken me to court.
I have taken SARS to court because SARS, during the sequestration case, when we went for break, they came to us and said they are withdrawing the case, they are recognising the settlement and they are out because when SARS brought sequestration I brought a counter application which was asking the court to declare the settlement valid and then they said, “No, there is no longer need for you to proceed with your counter application because we are withdrawing sequestration. We are going to recognise your settlement and we will even pay the legal costs. After that court when you, their friends turned against them and said SARS lost, etcetera”, they then made a U-turn and said, “No Malema is not off the hook. We are considering garnishing his government salary and all manner of things and we do not recognise the settlement”.
I immediately went back to court and said to court I had brought a counter application to SARS but SARS asked me to withdraw because they are also withdrawing and they are going to recognise my settlement but it looks like they are backtracking. I need declaratory order by the court that this settlement is binding to SARS and it has been fully executed, so it’s me who took them at court. They didn’t take me to court. They were actually saying, “We don’t understand why you are going to court because we have not threatened you with anything. We have never said we are actioning anything. We just said in public we don’t recognise the settlement but it’s nothing we have done”.
I said to them, “I’m not going to live with a sword on my neck because I know if we don’t finish this thing you are going to wait for a particular day when your political masters are going to instruct you to now slaughter me. I’m not going to allow that because SARS is the most corrupt institution”, even those who went to it now, who are leading it now. It looks like they are worse than what was there before. SARS now is led by a group of tribalists who invite each other to senior position on the basis of the language they speak. They have inherited that Afrikaner attitude.
Afrikaners who are investigators there, they are the ones who have brought on every case that involves black people and they have an attitude that they must close down every black man. They are not prepared to listen to anything. They will never say, “Let’s go into business rescue”. They will never say, “Let’s allow you to continue business. This is how you are going to settle us”. What they do, when it involves a black person they go for the guillotine. They just want to kill and then they target small companies which are competing with multi-national companies. If there is a multi-national company which feels threatened by new emerging markets, SARS will target those small companies, stifle them, and make sure that they do not grow in the interest of monopoly industries.
They are all the same. They were engaged in illegal activities. They were listening to people. They still listen to people today, particularly their previous employers. They still listen to their previous employers, they threaten them, and they tell them, “If you dare cooperate with any of the people who we are fighting against, we’ll teach you a lesson”. They still listen to people illegally till today and then Pravin comes in and he says, “No, SARS, the restructuring”, it’s not in order because the new cops in town are tampering with Pravin’s boys”. Most of them are white boys who protect white monopoly capital.
Pravin Gordhan is a subject of white monopoly capital. He works for the Rupert family and the Rothschild’s. Pravin Gordhan said in the negotiations on behalf of the, in Natal Indian Congress which was non-existent, they had to create that space for him to come so that they can contribute in defence of white monopoly capital, so Pravin, Nene, whoever you want to call including that one of a quick one, the van Rooyen, they are all the same. They bow before white monopoly capital. Anyone who thinks that SARS is progressive under any of these people, you are just misleading yourself. The new tribalists and the old racists, when it comes to us, they unite and then when it comes to them they kill each other, so you don’t have to get involved because they are the same. They must each other alive. They are all corrupt. Tom is also the same. Tom has got a long outstanding relationship with the Zuma family. Actually he used to look after Zuma’s children. Effectively, Zuma’s nanny in Mozambique. That’s how far their relationship goes and you say such people can be trusted. I don’t trust them.
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I will fight them. I’m not going to be bullied by SARS. I will never be bullied by NPA. I’ll never be bullied by anyone unlike the rest of you because I know my rights and through fighting them I’m inspiring a lot of you that when these people come to you, don’t shake, just look at the law. Everything else must be done according to the law and not by emotions and not by political connection. We must protect our judiciary because it is the only thing left. Yes, it must still be transformed. It is still white dominated.
It’s still biased to white monopoly capital. Those are battles we are prepared to fight as we continue with the struggle to transform our society to become a better society for all, black and white but the judiciary has refused to surrender its independence to these ANC crooks and the Zupta’s because if they were in the pockets of the Zupta’s then we will know that we are done. Perhaps we are still, we are going to be asking for refugee status in other countries, Swaziland, Lesotho, whatever because once they take the judiciary we must all forget it. That’s why the constitutional court judges have to do the right thing. The whole country depends on them now.
This matter is a matter of national importance. They must attend to it with that understanding that this matter is a matter of national importance. It has divided the country. It has divided parliament, it has divided the clergy, the religious groups, everyone including families. The constitutional court must bring this matter to finality on the 9th of February. All I’m saying is that I’m not afraid to fight. I’m a fighter. I brought the battle to SARS. It’s a continuous battle because SARS has created an impression that is untouchable.
I have a problem with people who think they are untouchable. No, we are all subjects of the law. SARS must subject itself to the law. It can’t say to me, “Here is a settlement” and then after they pulled out of the case of the sequestration, that evening they go and meet with Tom in a hotel. Tom asks them, “What happened at the court? We can’t leave this man alone. He must go down” then political principals have given such an instruction and I’m not afraid of it because I’m ready for it. I’ve lost everything. I have nothing to lose. I’ll fight them so that those who come after me must have the necessary courage to fight the state institutions. SARS must help us to comply. It must not be like a bullterrier. It attacks for a kill because its responsibility is to collect revenue.
I wish somebody one day, those who sit in finance committees will ask them, “How much have you spent on Malema’s case alone? How much have you spent on Malema to recover how much?” and make a decision as to whether that makes business sense. That’s what the judge said in the sequestration case, “Oh you are using R 10.00 to chase R 2.00. Why would you do that if all you are interested in is to collect money?” I don’t trust SARS. I’m fighting for a day where SARS will be independent. I’m fighting for a day where SARS will collect revenue and make our country what it should be and help people to comply and those are who helped to comply and they still don’t comply, those deserve punishment from such institutions.
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Were you surprised about Zuma’s offer?
Well, I’m not surprised by Zuma’s offer. I said to the country, all of us here that Zuma is going to pay. When Zuma says, “I’m paying” why would I be surprised if that’s what I expected to happen? We knew that when we go to the constitutional court Zuma will have to pay and it looks like Christmas came earlier because there isn’t much difficulty. We just have to work on the nitty gritty of how we go about it. It doesn’t matter what happens in the constitutional court. Let’s say we’ll go to the constitutional court and Zuma argues jurisdiction and says, “This matter doesn’t belong here, it must go to the law court”. It doesn’t matter even if the constitutional court says, “Hey, go away”. We have the paper here. Zuma says I’m prepared to pay already. That settlement, the offer he gave to us, he has already said he will pay”.
Pay for what if you are not wrong, pay for what? The man has admitted guilt. Let’s deal with him after the court. What happens to a president who steals the money of the people and accepts that I’ve stolen? What happens? We need to provide that answer once we have gone past the stage of a constitutional court but at the ultimate end Zuma must be removed as the president of the Republic. That’s the way it goes. It doesn’t matter what we do. It’s not a secret. Don’t even write that there are secret talks about Zuma going. It’s not a secret. Zuma must go. ANC must go. We don’t want the ANC in power and we are going to remove it in all the metros.
Those of you who are voting ANC, you are voting for this corruption and Gupta’s. Go on! We are living our lives with our conscience very clear. We have never voted for these corrupt fellows. One question was “Do you regret having been in there before?” There are no coincidences in politics. It had to happen because there was a threat to the constitution but we replaced Mbeki with nothing because it’s just a mess. In an attempt to protect the constitution we actually gave it to the dogs to tear it apart. That’s what happened but instead of speaking of regrets, in politics we say it’s a lesson. It is not worth investing in individuals. It is worth investing in a principle. Zuma is a serious miscarriage of history, Thank you very much.
Thank you very much – press, ladies, and gents.
