Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema is adamant that his name won’t appear in the leaked Gupta email dump.
He was speaking in a wide ranging interview given to Tbo Touch on his Touch HD radio show Wednesday.
Malema emphasised that he had never had contact with the Gupta family - emails from whom have revealed unflattering connections to African National Congress (ANC) power brokers.
“I’m not in the emails‚” he said. “I’m not in the Guptas' phonebook. They’ve never called me. I’ve never met the Guptas. They’ve never WhatsApp’d me. They never send me an SMS. I am a free soul.”
Malema made a point of saying that he was not interested in coalition governance with the Democratic Alliance. His vision for 2019 was for outright winners in the provinces with strategic voting‚ if necessary.
For instance‚ the minority parties could get together and decide which party had the strongest chance in a province and then all the parties would vote in unison to ensure their preferred result.
“The future of SA is in hands of opposition parties‚” Malema said. “We have to re-organise ourselves. We have to take ourselves more serious. We have to increase our support base and give our people an alternative strong government option.”
The reason for his silence over the past months‚ Malema said‚ was that “the ruling party is engaged in a programme of self-destruction. As they self destruct‚ you don’t have to disturb them.”
The 36-year-old also continued his attack on his former boss‚ President Jacob Zuma‚ saying he was not qualified to be president after the many scandals that have engulfed the presidency.
“Once you find the president with the hand in the cookie jar‚ then that person is no longer qualified to be the president‚” he said.
Malema also revealed he has not spoken to Zuma in a personal setting since 2014‚ when he called to congratulate Zuma for re-election.
Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package. 