Behind AfriForum's prosecution of Julius Malema
'They know if they don’t prosecute we can and will'
EXTRACT:
The charges relate to a R52-million Limpopo roads tender awarded to a company called On Point Engineering in 2009. Malema was the sole trustee of the Ratanang Trust, which held an interest in the company.
Kriel himself had opened a case against Malema in 2011 regarding the matter.
“If you look at the Gupta/Jacob Zuma cases there has been a lot of pressure on them [NPA] to actually be left with no choice but to do that [prosecute],” Kriel told Times Select on Thursday.
“It seems they are now also going to prosecute Duduzane Zuma – which they didn’t want to do before – so we had to exert pressure to say if they don’t, we will. That is our role at the moment, to make sure they do their job and if they don’t, we will,” Kriel added.
Kriel agreed this was the same reason why the announcement over Malema was made now, despite the NPA writing to AfriForum that state prosecutors would make a decision in August.
The decision by civil rights group AfriForum to announce plans to privately prosecute Julius Malema is a simple manoeuvre to place the National Prosecuting Authority under pressure to act, according to its chief executive Kallie Kriel. At a press conference on Thursday, Kriel announced that Advocate Gerrie Nel, who heads the organisation’s private prosecutions unit, was gearing up to prosecute Malema, leader of the EFF, on charges of fraud and corruption if the NPA failed to do so. In August 2015 the matter was struck off the roll due to one of Malema’s co-accused being seriously ill.The charges relate to a R52-million Limpopo roads tender awarded to a company called On Point Engineering in 2009. Malema was the sole trustee of the Ratanang Trust, which held an interest in the company. Kriel himself had opened a case against Malema in 2011 regarding the matter. “If you look at the Gupta/Jacob Zuma cases there has been a lot of pressure on them [NPA] to actually be left with no choic...
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