Malema says ‘siblings exchange money’ in defence of Shivambu

The leader of the red berets also accused the media of a 'deliberate' attempt to 'discredit' his deputy and his party.


EFF leader Julius Malema says that he has examined his deputy Floyd Shivambu’s bank statements and has confirmed that there are transactions between the EFF second-in-command and his brother Brian.

However, he denies there is anything untoward about that.

“Siblings exchange money. That’s how things are,” he said.

Speaking at a press conference at the party’s headquarters on Tuesday, Malema also said there are transactions between Shivambu and his other brother Lucky as well as their parents.

The commander-in-chief’s “siblings exchange money” defence is reminiscent of comments made by EFF national chairperson Dali Mpofu last week, when he compared the situation to receiving R20 from his sister: “I received R20 from my sister yesterday and the EFF haven’t had a discussion about that yet.”

WATCH: Mpofu’s flippant response to VBS allegations

However, Shivambu at the presser also directly denied that a sum of R10 million was received.

“I have exposed all the information I have to the leadership, there has never been any R10 million deposited into my account. Even if you aren’t acting as a journalist, then as a patriotic citizen, go to the police station and give them the evidence,” he said.

Malema, meanwhile, has suggested that the allegations are as a result of a plot against the party, led by the Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan along with the Treasury and abetted by the media.

“We know why this is happening; because we have introduced the Banks Amendment Bill, Reserve Bank Amendment Bill, and the Tax Avoidance Bill and all of these deal with the banking systems in South Africa,” Malema said.

He also said that the media’s reporting on the matter “is deliberate and we see it for what it is, an attempt to discredit the EFF and the deputy president of the EFF”.

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