Pretoria - Julius Malema has again lashed out at the Gupta-owned media empire and its employees, maintaining that the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) would not legitimise a “gangster” empire and would not engage any of its journalists.
Speaking at the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC) national rules operation centre in Pretoria on Friday, Malema said the EFF had made it clear that they did not want to speak to any journalists working for media companies owned by the Gupta family, who are friends with president Jacob Zuma.
Malema was asked what his response was after EFF deputy president, Floyd Shivambu, allegedly “broke the electoral code” by harassing an ANN7 journalist, on Thursday.
Malema argued that the electoral code was also not above the constitution and that party members reserved the right to speak to the media.
“We’ve made it clear that we don’t want to talk to ANN7 because they are not a news agency. ANN7 is an institution that promotes racketeering and fraud, and all sorts of criminal activities in this country,” Malema said.
“So we are refusing, and no one is going to force us, not even the electoral court. We are prepared to go to our graves for refusing to speak to ANN7. If there is any law that we’ve contradicted, let us be arrested.”
Earlier this year, the EFF banned ANN7 and The New Age journalists from its media briefings, saying that they would be casualties if they did not “move out of the way”.
On Friday, Malema continued his line of attack against journalists working for the Gupta empire, saying they were “agents”.
“We are refusing to legitimise a gangster which has captured our country. We are going to fight tooth and nail to liberate this country from Zuma, from the Guptas. And if you thought we were joking about that, you have to think twice,” Malema said.
“Our country has been captured. Our country is being molested by the Guptas and Jacob Zuma, without Vaseline.”
African News agency