In Focus

Malema dismisses allegations that EFF’s birthday bash was funded by VBS money

EFF leader Julius Malema has, once again, denied allegations that the party’s 2017 birthday bash was funded by stolen VBS money.

Speaking to eNCA news anchor Xoli Mngambi on Tuesday morning, 28 May 2019, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema, once again, denied claims that the party funded its fourth birthday bash in 2017, which took place in Umlazi, Durban, through money stolen from the VBS Mutual Bank.

“It was not paid for by VBS. We paid for it, we pay for our rallies,” Malema said.

On Thursday, 18 April 2019, Malema was a guest on Eusebius McKaizer’s show on 702, where he swore, live on air, that the EFF had not received any money from the VBS Mutual Bank.

“There’s no money that has come into our coffers,” said Malema, adding that his party’s books were open to any journalist who would like to interrogate the transaction history.

Following up on this offer, Mngambi asked Malema why he ignored journalists who had requested access to the party’s financial books, to which Malema replied by saying he had never been contacted by any journalists.

“They never came to me. For sure they have spoken to the treasurer-general’s office, the treasurer-general’s office made arrangements with them to come after the 8th [8 May elections].

“We just finished the 8th [May] papa, even cabinet is not appointed. What is the hurry? We are all getting our houses in order. I will go back to the treasurer’s office to check what went wrong with this issue.”

Journalist Pauli Van Wyk, who initially unearthed the EFF’s ties to VBS Mutual Bank, wrote an investigative report in which she alleged that EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu’s brother Brian Shivambu has also received money from VBS. The report alleges that Brian received R16 million from the bank, of which R10 million was allegedly given to Floyd, while R1.3 million went into the EFF’s bank account.

“All in all, the EFF benefited from at least R4.13 million through myriad channels. Of this total amount, Scorpio traced about R1.5 million in VBS loot which was paid directly into two EFF bank accounts. This comes despite vehement denials from the EFF leadership of having benefited from the VBS robbery,” read part of the article.

Abenathi Gqomo