Cape Town - The EFF and its disgruntled former MP Zolile Xalisa continued to trade blows in public on Monday.
The party slammed Xalisa, who has accused the organisation's top leadership of financial mismanagement and ruling the party with an iron fist.
In his resignation letter addressed to the party, Xalisa accused Malema of running the party like his “bedroom, kitchen, toilet and yacht”.
EFF spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi has since dismissed Xalisa’s allegations.
“It's all lies. Xalisa is in (a similar) position as Rawula; he thought the leadership would push his name up in the Parliamentary list to be in the top 25. When his expectations were not met, he became disgruntled and now lies about the EFF.
“The question on financial statements is an easy one. Those are public information and Parliament would not give the EFF money without audited financial statements,” said Ndlozi.
Xalisa is the second former EFF MP to accuse the party of financial mismanagement.
Thembinkosi Rawula, who was snubbed by being left off the EFF’s National Assembly list, also resigned amid a bitter war of words over the party’s financial resources.
Xalisa told Independent Media that he had made attempts to bring the matter to the attention of the party's top leadership. But he said the party would not hold Malema to account, saying that the leader was “untouchable within the party”.
“I have spoken to the leadership, but it is no use. Malema is untouchable, no one within the party questions him. The EFF has 9 non-negotiable pillars. Number seven talks about accountability, of which we don't practice as the party inside. They only want to make the ANC accountable, but they are not practising what they are preaching. I cannot be part of that organisation any more,” Xalisa said.
Xalisa had served on the EFF central command team (CCT), but when asked whether he had evidence to vouch for his allegations, said the only proof he would have were the party's financial statements.
He said they were not allowed access to these statements, and that would make it hard for him to prove his allegations against the party.
“The problem is when one is talking about allegations, because I have indicated in my statement that there is no transparency in the EFF. As a member of the national executive committee, we haven't received financial reports in all our meetings since 2014.
“When we had these meetings, we were supposed to get the reports. It is difficult to submit evidence. We don’t get these statements to tell us how the funds are accounted for,” he said.
He accused Malema and his deputy, Floyd Shivambu, of financial mismanagement and of accepting a donation from VBS Mutual Bank. He referred to them as “the pair”, and alleged the EFF was like a “financial fishing net” for them, “an antithesis of everything they support”.
Rawula demanded that the EFF disclose all audited bank statements for the past four years.