Pretoria - Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema's legal team asked the High Court in Pretoria on Monday to postpone his sequestration case.
Dolf Masoma, for Malema, said there were two aspects to his argument to have the case postponed. The first was Malema had a corruption case pending against him. The second was Malema intended to apply to have his admission of liability set aside.
“The respondent [Malema] intends to bring to court... [an application] setting aside an admission of liability that was made by the respondent and that was made at a time when the applicant [SA Revenue Service] and the respondent were involved in negotiations to settle,” Masoma told the court.
If the court set aside the admission of liability then an order made in the sequestration case would have to be set aside, he said.
Malema was not in court.
The Sars opposed the application for a postponement.
According to court documents, Malema owed R16 million plus interest after failing to submit tax returns between 2006 and 2010. In 2010, the Sars contacted Malema about his failure to submit tax returns.
It took Malema 18 months, after many attempts by the Sars, to file his outstanding returns.
Malema also failed to register the Ratanang Trust for tax purposes, and Sars had to do this on his behalf. - Sapa