Limpopo - Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema has accused President Jacob Zuma of failing to declare a salary he allegedly received from a company owned by Durban security tycoon Roy Moodley.
He claimed Zuma was also behind a special project by the SA Revenue Service, dubbed Project Caesar, meant to target him for political reasons.
Addressing the party’s Limpopo manifesto launch rally at his hometown of Seshego near Polokwane on Sunday, Malema claimed that Zuma started receiving a salary from Moodley shortly after being fired by former president Thabo Mbeki as the country’s deputy president in 2005. The salary lasted until four months after Zuma became the country’s president in 2009, the EFF leader added.
“Zuma didn’t declare that salary when he became state president,” Malema said to thousands of supporters who braved the rain for three hours before he arrived.
Among the EFF’s national leaders who attended the event were central command team members Dali Mpofu, Magdelene Moonsamy and Floyd Shivambu, and national organiser Mpho Ramakatsa.
Malema said that, according to Sars regulations, Zuma was supposed to receive a 50 percent penalty fine and 200 percent interest, because of the failure to declare. But that never happened and Zuma was instead told to pay the money back to the businessman.
“The reason I am telling you this is that there is no president who must be under the employ of any company, but Zuma was employed for four months by Roy Moodley and he failed to declare. When Roy Moodley declared his finances to Sars, it was uncovered,” he said.
Zuma’s spokesman, Mac Maharaj, reiterated on Sunday that he spoke for the president only on government matters. However, he said he would comment at a later stage.
Sars spokesman Adrian Lackay could not be reached for comment. His phone rang unanswered and his colleague, Marika Muller, said Lackay was the best person to comment on the matter.
Moodley could not be reached for comment.
Malema took a further swipe at Zuma for attending Moodley’s 60th birthday party at the Durban International Convention Centre last month.
“Instead of mobilising people to register like a president, he went to a party of Moodley and did what he is famous for – dancing,” he said.
The Star reported last month that Zuma told guests at the party that the ANC had already discussed a role for Moodley before the elections. Zuma said it was important to show his face and helped to cut his friend’s birthday cake.
Malema said Sars hatched Project Caesar after Zuma requested he be dealt with, as he was the “sole obstacle” to his presidential ambitions, in the run-up to the ANC’s Mangaung national elective conference in December 2012.
He claimed the same project was used to facilitate a licence for one of Zuma’s sons to import tobacco via a company called Delta Tobacco.
The Star