Push for Julius Malema probe

Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi has added his voice to the growing calls for ANC Youth League president Julius Malema to be investigated.

This follows reports that he had created a secret trust fund into which businessmen and politicians paid thousands of rands to get him to use his influence on their behalf.

Vavi yesterday called on the ANC ethics committee to investigate Malema.

"The taxman, the police and the Special Investigating Unit must conduct full lifestyle audits and not only look into possible tax avoidance," the boss of the labour federation added. "A message has to be sent out that nobody is above the law."

Vavi's comments were made yesterday, on the same day that civil rights movement Afriforum laid criminal charges of corruption against Malema, and the DA said the Public Protector should investigate him.

City Press newspaper reported yesterday that Malema had allegedly registered a secret trust, the Ratanang Family Trust, a few months after his election as youth league president in 2008. Malema is the sole trustee.

According to City Press, several senior politicians, companies, mayors, contractors and municipal managers have allegedly deposited "thousands" into the account in exchange for Malema facilitating deals and pushing their agenda.

On Saturday morning Malema tried to interdict City Press from publishing the story, but his application was dismissed with costs.

Afriforum CEO Kallie Kriel yesterday said the charge he had laid at the Brooklyn police station in Pretoria related to contraventions of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act and was based on the City Press allegations.

"This amounts to corruption in terms of the act and warrants a criminal investigation by the police," said Kriel.

"We believe that, even if it were not for the allegations in City Press, the police should still investigate his lifestyle. In terms of the act, when a person's lifestyle is disproportionate to that person's known income, this alone warrants an investigation," he said.

The DA's Dianne Kohler Barnard yesterday said she would ask Public Protector Thuli Madonsela to investigate whether Malema had "been party to large-scale tender manipulation, bribery and corruption".

"[It] could mean that Malema has been actively involved in tender fraud to the tune of hundreds of millions of rands. It is in the public interest to know whether political leaders are involved in corrupt, self-serving practices," she said.

SA Communist Party spokesman Malesela Maleka said the allegations were serious.

"We think that, even if only half of what has been said by City Press is true, we have a serious problem with that. The allegations are damning and quite serious and scary. There is a need for the law enforcement agencies to get to the bottom of this matter."

But the ANC said Malema's trust fund was above board.

"What should be understood is Comrade Julius Malema's private life remains private," said ANC spokesman Brian Sokutu.

"If he had broken the law, we would be concerned."

Sokutu did not deal with the allegations that Malema took payments in exchange for influencing the awarding of government tenders.

"He is neither a member of parliament nor of the government and it is therefore not unethical for him to be involved in business."

Another ANC spokesman, Keith Khoza, said it was "a purely personal matter" and that the ANC had no plans to ask Malema to explain himself.

Khoza said there was "no proof" in the City Press article, which alleged that the trust had paid for a portion of Palmietfontein farm in Limpopo, and for a church.

Khoza said the story might be part of a political conspiracy against Malema.

"We don't know the motive so we cannot even pronounce. It is a story by journalists that still needs to be validated."

The series of articles in City Press quoted a Limpopo businessman who had allegedly paid R200000 into the trust's account. He said people who wanted Malema to use his influence to help them get tenders or protect them politically deposited money into the account or negotiated a fee of between 30% and 50% of the total profit of the project.

Malema, he said, wants his share as soon as payments for the contracts are received from the government department or municipality.

Several attempts to contact Malema and youth league spokesman Floyd Shivambu yesterday failed.

But City Press quoted Malema's lawyer, Viwe Notshe, who said Malema did not deny receiving money through the trust but the payments were "contributions for this cause and that cause".

In a separate article, the newspaper alleged that Malema had received a R1.2-million Range Rover from Limpopo businessman Matome Hlabioa, of MPPJ Property Development, which has won government contracts in Limpopo worth more than R200-million.

But Hlabioa said Malema could not influence tenders and that he gave Malema cars because Malema was "like a son" to him.

Gauteng police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini would not confirm the Afriforum complaint and referred queries to Hawks spokesman MacIntosh Polela, who said the unit did "not comment on people's cases or investigations".

Malema, who reportedly wears a R250000 Breitling watch, has told the media that he earns a youth league salary of about R20000 a month.