WATCH | ‘We will attach Nkandla’: Malema to start legal row with Zuma over ‘unpaid fees’

EFF leader Julius Malema is set to challenge MK Party president Jacob Zuma over “unpaid legal fees” and he has his eyes on the former president's multimillion-rand Nkandla home.

Malema has been aggrieved about MKP’s recruitment of former red berets leaders over the past three months. Several members of the EFF, including Malema’s former deputy Floyd Shivambu, have joined Zuma’s party. 

Speaking to thousands of party supporters outside the Constitutional Court, Malema assured them he would fight Zuma, including going after his assets. 

“We brought Zuma to the Constitutional Court and we said, ‘pay back the money,’ and he paid back the money and has not forgiven us for that. All the cases we won against Jacob Zuma he never paid the legal fees. Zuma owes us legal fees. We have a court order that he must pay us our money. He has not complied with the court order,” he said. 

“We have instructed our lawyer to attach Nkandla so that the man pays back the money. We want our money. He wants to play dirty, bring it on, bring us our money tomorrow [Wednesday] otherwise we are attaching Nkandla.” 

The EFF had brought scores of its supporters to the apex court where it was challenging parliament’s decision not to adopt a Section 89 panel report on Phala Phala.

In 2016, the ConCourt ruled Zuma should pay back some of the money spent on improvements to his home in Nkandla. The EFF was involved in the legal row. It could be argued that the EFF was among Zuma's biggest critiques and ultimately led to his downfall after several years of ridicule in the National Assembly at the hands of the red berets.

“We will not play nice with people who are playing rough with us. We are not in a church here, people cannot fight us and we give them roses. The fight is on. The fight is about defending the soul of the EFF and the unity of the EFF.” 

Malema's fierce rebuke of Zuma was evident during the party's activities over the past few days. 

In Limpopo, Malema sent a strong warning to his detractors within the party promising to deal with those who seek to betray him. 

This was followed by a speech in Gauteng were Malema told party members that the MK Party would not succeed in destroying the EFF. 

On Monday during a media briefing, Malema called the MK Party its enemy despite their alliance in parliament. 

Malema's theatrics are likely caused by growing dissent within the party as it prepares for its elective conference.

The first signs that the EFF leadership was under strain came earlier in the year when reports indicated that Shivambu would be challenged for his position by its secretary-general Marshall Dlamini. 

This revelation came after Malema recalled Shivambu from KwaZulu-Natal where his deputy had failed to retain its support. The recall of the-then deputy president signalled problems for the party.

Shortly after the elections and Shivambu's defection, another loyal ally, Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, was suspected to be planning his exit. Ndlozi had been overlooked for several key positions within the party and relegated to the back of the leadership line. 

His influence over the student command resulted in public spats with some party members vowing to support him for the vacant deputy president position. Party members openly challenged Malema on social media platforms, which is uncharacteristic for the party. 

In an interview with the Sunday Times this week, Zuma said his plan was to take back the ANC by uniting black parties under his MK Party banner and recapturing the leadership of the party, which he said had deviated from its ancestors. 

He dismissed suggestions that the MK Party was poaching leaders from the EFF.

“You can’t have everybody [joining] at one day, it will be something like a miracle. Other comrades come. Nobody is taking somebody [to move] from somebody else. All this time, before MK was established, people were moving from other parties to join others. This very same organisation you’re talking about, moved from this [ANC] organisation,” he told the Sunday Times.

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