Johannesburg - EFF leader Julius Malema and his deputy Floyd Shivambu are taking legal action against the party’s former MP Thembinkosi Rawula for posting allegations that the two were using party coffers to fund their lifestyles.
At a press briefing on Wednesday afternoon, Malema said he was taking action against Rawula in his personal capacity and not as EFF leader.
Shivambu also confirmed that he had briefed lawyers to go after Rawula.
Malema said Shivambu was not a signatory to the EFF’s bank accounts and has never even submitted claims to the party for incurring personal costs while on official duty.
"It’s unfair and unjustifiable to say that Floyd abuses EFF funds,” he said.
According to Malema, it was him, secretary-general Godrich Gardee and treasurer-general Leigh-Ann Mathys were signatories to the EFF’s bank accounts.
Malema was the principal signatory, he said.
On Wednesday, Rawula resigned from the EFF after he failed to make it on its lists to Parliament.
He accused Malema of turning serious people of substance in the EFF central command team into zombies who have become cheerleaders of his insults.
"I am giving you political lessons because no one within your clique dares or (is) able (to) challenge you when you vulgarise these important principles in which EFF revolutionary discipline and code of conduct is rooted from,” Rawula said in his resignation letter.
Rawula added: “Let the society judge me for taking this long to speak but in mitigation of my sentence, I have finally spoken”.
Political Bureau