By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema wants Jacob Zuma to settle the legal fees awarded to his party or face the possibility of having his Nkandla homestead attached.
This comes after several members of the party, including his former deputy Floyd Shivambu defected to Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party.
In 2016, the Constitutional Court ordered Zuma to repay the state R7.8 million for improvements to his private home at Nkandla that were made at taxpayers’ expense.
The ruling was made following the applications by the EFF and the Democratic Alliance (DA), that Zuma had failed to uphold the Constitution by flouting a directive from Public Protector Thuli Madonsela that he pay back public money spent on luxuries, including a swimming pool, added to his rural home.
The ruling was a resounding victory for the EFF and the DA, the latter which had turned “pay back the money” into a battle cry deployed against Zuma whenever he appeared in Parliament.
Speaking to thousands of party supporters outside the Constitutional Court, Malema assured his supporters he would fight Zuma, including going after his assets.
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.
“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.”
Zuma and Malema seemed to have found a common ground ahead of the 29 May general elections despite a long long run of public spats.