Malema: I’ve already paid Sars R2m

733 Economic Freedom Fighters Commander In Chief Julius Malema being interviewed by The Star in his party's offices in Braamfontein near Johannesburg. 240714 Picture: Boxer Ngwenya

733 Economic Freedom Fighters Commander In Chief Julius Malema being interviewed by The Star in his party's offices in Braamfontein near Johannesburg. 240714 Picture: Boxer Ngwenya

Published Aug 25, 2014

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Pretoria - The provisional sequestration order against EFF Leader Julius Malema was extended to December 1 on Monday morning as he has reached an agreement with Sars and is in the process of paying off his hefty tax debt.

The matter was simply postponed in chambers by Judge Natvarlal Ranchod.

Malema and his entourage entered the courtroom at the North Gauteng High Court around 10am, but a court official came to tell the media contingent that the matter had been disposed of in chambers.

Speaking to the media outside court, Malema said he had reached a settlement with Sars in terms of which he had already paid the taxman R2 million. He will also pay a further R500 000 a month, apart from the R30 000 a month which would be deducted from his salary. Malema said November 28 will be his last payment and by then all his tax would be up-to-date.

“On December 1 the matter will simply be struck from the roll.”

He said he is making these payments in additional to his assets, including a farms and houses, being sold by Sars.

“I have to pay an extra R4 million on top of the things which Sars have sold. By this month I would have paid R2.5 million.”

Malema told the media that allegations by Sars that he received the money from to repay his tax debt from an alleged cigarette smuggler, were nonsense. According to him, fellow South Africans helped him to pay it off.

Malema said he was very disappointed when he heard on Sunday that Sars wanted to investigate whether he had received his tax bailout from a cigarette smuggler.

“If you want to know who pays Julius Malema’s tax, just ask me.”

Malema said he thought he had reached and agreement with Sars and he was disappointed that Sars has raised their suspicions with the media and not with him directly.

Once again he urged people to pay their taxes, saying a lot of people owe Sars.

He said his debt would not influence his political career, as there were “may parliamentarians” who owed the taxman.

“Many of you owe the taxman. Maybe not as much as I did, but you owe,” he told the media on Monday morning.

Regarding last week’s move by the ANC to have him and other EFF leaders thrown out of parliament, he said he ‘innocently” asked when President Jacob Zuma was going to pay back his Nkandla debt to the people. He did not expect this to be met with such a violent reaction by the ANC.

Malema said in Parliament people are suppose to be able to express themselves and the police should not have been called in.

“Fortunately it was white police officers who know the law…”

He said ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe now wanted to move Parliament to Gauteng as there he could tell the police, who are “mostly black and disadvantaged”, what to do.

“The ANC on Thursday for the first time met a real opposition and they did not know how to handle it,” Malema said.

Pretoria News

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