Six quotes from Julius Malema on VBS, his 'innocence' & lifestyle audits

EFF leader Julius Malema held a press briefing with journalists on Thursday, on various issues including his alleged links with the VBS Mutual Bank saga.

Here are six explosive quotes from his responses:

VBS Mutual Bank should not have been closed 

“The VBS Mutual Bank was supposed to have been rescued because it was one of the black banks. It should have been given a full banking licence and anyone found to have violated the regulations should be charged and blacklisted not to practise banking anywhere. Let's arrest the criminal elements and rescue the bank.” 

Lifestyle audits

“There is no politician in this country who has been subjected to [more] lifestyle audits than me. Sars conducts that from time to time, so I am not scared of such things.”

Associates and VBS Mutual Bank

“They are business people, they have always been, long before the EFF. Some of them, implicated in Limpopo have gone through the courts in Limpopo and won cases. I'm never there and they answer for themselves. They are not compromising me, it's correct for my cousins to do business, let them do it.”

Smear campaign 

“When they said Malema collapsed Limpopo, the intention was to dent his image. R50m tender to collapse a province of R47bn? The intention always, which is 'Pravin [Gordhan's] operation', is discredit your opponents and leave them out there. They just smear you and leave you out there.”

Attempts to save VBS Mutual Bank

“I said to the president [Ramaphosa] if there is anything we can do to save this bank, let us save it because it will be another black failure. To see the bank of the Venda king going down and yet we call ourselves democratic, yet we can't defend what our grannies established during difficult times.”

We are innocent

“There is nothing that implicates us. Why are we not being arrested? Why are we not being charged if these [allegations] are legitimate? Why would a company implicated in a report of corruption and fraud not be charged?”