Johannesburg - "Bring it on bloody racists, you don’t scare me at all. I’m born ready! No white man will decide my destiny, the poor masses of our people will..."
This was how EFF leader Julius Malema responded to the announcement by advocate Gerrie Nel that AfriForum plans to privately prosecute him for fraud and corruption charges that relate to the On Point Engineering case.
Bring it on bloody racists, you don’t scare me at all. I’m born ready! No white man will decide my destiny, the poor masses of our people will... pic.twitter.com/nKkjHbXqYv
— Julius Sello Malema (@Julius_S_Malema) April 19, 2018
The fraud and corruption charges being pursued by Nel relate to On Point Engineering, a company that was also owned by Malema.
The company was illegally awarded a R50 million tender by the Limpopo government in 2009 to oversee the work done by service providers in the province.
Former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela found in 2012 that the Limpopo government had not followed proper processes in awarding the tender to On Point Engineering.
Some of the money received from the Limpopo government was allegedly transferred to Malema’s family trust “Ratanang”.
Nel said there are questions relating to why the case against Malema and his co-accused Lesiba Gwangwa was never reinstated.
In 2015 the case against Malema, Gwangwa and another individual was struck of the roll because a co-accused was sick, according to Nel.
Nel said there has been evidence to prove that the accused has recovered from the illness, but the case remains closed.
When the NPA was questioned on the matter, it said the matter had been transferred to the Priority Crimes Litigation Unit (PCLU).
“The PCLU says it is reconsidering re-instating the charges,” he said.
“The prosecutor at the time said the matter was ready to go to trial, and we questioned why the case was moved away from the prosecutor at the SCCU (NPA) and to the PCLU.”
Nel said they have written to the NPA and set a deadline of August 2018 for the prosecuting authority to respond to its application to privately prosecute Malema.
If the NPA does not respond by August, Nel said they would go ahead with private prosecution.
Nel said he was not moved by Malema’s comments about the plans.
“I will not get into a personal discussion with anybody I have prosecuted. You will not find any comment from people have prosecuted in the past. I am prosecutor and that’s my job. I will not respond to any private comments,” he said.