Johannesburg - EFF leader Julius Malema and his supporters will hand over a house to a destitute family at Nkandla on Saturday.
The house stands right next to President Jacob Zuma’s rural estate, which Malema has dubbed “a museum of corruption”.
During a media briefing in Joburg on Thursday, the government came under attack from the EFF for spending more than R1 billion to buy back the luxury Mala Mala game lodge for the dispossessed community of Mhala Mhala in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga.
Zuma handed over the land to the N’wandlamhlarhi Community Property Association in Bushbuckridge during an official ceremony on Thursday.
Malema intends to hand over the house to Zuma’s “desperate and homeless” neighbour.
Government reports have exonerated Zuma of any wrongdoing in the spending of more than R200 million on the “security upgrade” of his private residence, but Malema said he had no doubt that the president had been behind the improvements, including influencing the construction of a R500 000 “fire pool”.
Malema said: “The inter-ministerial report released by (Public Works Minister) Thulas Nxesi is pure hogwash and has already been delegitimised by Michael Zuma (Zuma’s brother), who said the claim that R52 million was spent to relocate families is false because no families were relocated in Nkandla,” Malema said.
He added: “We are delivering a house to a poor family in Nkandla, next to the illegal and illegitimate private residence of the current and outgoing president of South Africa. From 2013, EFF has been in the process of constructing the house because we are a caring organisation that extends… assistance to those it can help.”
The EFF leader is due to be in KwaZulu-Natal from Saturday until Monday, canvassing for support ahead of the elections in a few months’ time.
Malema described the R1bn awarded to the Rattray family, who own the Mala Mala game reserve, as “confirmation that crime does pay”.
He claimed the reserve’s owners had been aware that the land did not belong to them.
The Star