ANC Youth league leader Julius Malema denies that he is building a R16-million house in the posh Johannesburg suburb of Sandown, insisting that he is not a rich man.
"A house costing R16-million to construct only exists in the imagination of rightwing, narrow-minded and obsessed white people who always think Africans cannot and should not build houses of their own.
"Whether we are building a house or not does not belong in the media, and even if there was such a house being built it would certainly not cost anything close to R16-million," Malema told reporters in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
He declined to give details of his financial interests, saying he was not a public figure.
He said he had a house in Sandton and a Mercedes-Benz, but that they both belonged to Absa Bank.
"Instead of being rich, I remain poor but credit-worthy," Malema said.
He was responding to allegations in the Sunday Independent at the weekend that he was building a mansion in Sandown that would include an underground bunker.
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