Juju’s jabs:

The EFF leader was in a belligerent mood yesterday, criticising all and sundry at the party’s Braamfontein headquarters.

1. ABSA

His party will occupy the bank and will deal with allegations of impropriety on its own

2. MMUSI MAIMANE

Was slammed for his recent visit to Israel, which Malema says shows the DA’s‘ true colours’

3. PUBLIC PROTECTOR

Busisiwe Mkhwebane, he said, should be referred to as the ‘state protector’

4 ZANU-PF

Branded ‘cowards’ for allowing Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe to run for another term

Malema challenges public protector to prove she’s not a spy by taking DA to court.

‘We are not going to occupy Absa through the terms of our enemies. We said we will not announce the date and time so why are you so impatient ... we said we will do it and we will not announce it and Absa will just wake up and find one day red berets all over it.”

Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema added the campaign to get Absa to pay back allegedly looted apartheid-era state funds was bankrolled by the Gupta family and the department of state security.

Speaking during an explosive briefing at the party’s headquarters yesterday, Malema made it clear he wanted no part of the calls to occupy the bank’s headquarters next month, saying it was his party that first exposed Absa’s alleged illicit transactions and it would deal with the matter in its own time.

The calls come after a leaked report by Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane, which found that Absa was liable for the repayment of R2.25 billion bailout from government to the Bankorp group, which was bought by Absa, in the early 1990s.

“The people who are calling [for] the occupation of Absa now and Absa #paybackthemoney, they are on the Gupta payroll, “Malema said. “State Security is used to destroy the opponents of the Guptas and we must join that?”

The party did, however, issue an ominous warning that a plan was in place for the EFF to time its march to Absa’s headquarters in such a way that would shake up the markets, hinting it would happen on a day before a repo rate announcement by the Reserve Bank.

He warned that every time adjustments to the repo rate were announced, Absa must panic. Malema also took the opportunity to lay into Mkhwebane, saying the party was planning to “rescue” the office from who they believe may be a spy and a puppet of the Gupta family and government.

“From today, we must not call her the Public Protector, we must call her a state protector,” quipped the EFF commander-in-chief.

Referring to allegations made by the Democratic Alliance last year suggesting that Mkhwebane was a spy, Malema challenged the public protector to prove that she was not a spy by taking the DA to court.

Implying a bid to unseat Mkhwebane, Malema issued a stern warning: “I can guarantee you we will solve this problem. If it gets confirmed, it means she also misled parliament. We are working on something.”

Malema’s wrath also fell on Zimbabwe’s ruling party, ZanuPF, which he referred to as cowards for allowing President Robert Mugabe to run for another term next year. He said the party’s complacence was not good for Zimbabwean people.

“We cannot have all Zimbabweans being cowards [and] all Zanu-PF members and leaders being cowards. President Mugabe has reached a stage where he can literally [not] do anything to you,” Malema said, bemoaning the statesman’s age and health.

He also laid into coalition partners the DA for its leader Mmusi Mmaimane’s recent visit to Israel.

Sarcastically noting that Maimane had every right to visit the embattled country despite international calls for its government to “free” Palestinians from apartheid-style treatment, he said the visit showed the DA’s “true colours”.