EFF president Julius Malema has demanded that DA veteran Helen Zille retract comments she made about him.
EFF president Julius Malema has sent a letter of demand to the DA’s Helen Zille, demanding that she withdraw comments she made during election week. Zille claimed that Malema dictated “major decisions” during Herman Mashaba’s tenure as mayor of Johannesburg. Zille has responded by saying she will not retract her comments. For more political news, visit News24 Politics
DA Johannesburg mayoral candidate Helen Zille has responded to EFF leader Julius Malema’s demand that she retract allegations implicating him in corruption in the Johannesburg metro with a legal letter only one sentence long.
It reads: “No, see you in court.”
Zille confirmed the authenticity of the letter, which did the rounds on social media, to News24. She subsequently posted it on her own social media accounts.
The DA’s lawyers, Minde, Shapiro and Smith Inc, sent the letter on Tuesday evening, hours after Malema’s legal team sent Zille a letter of demand.
Malema wanted her to apologise for claiming in an interview with eNCA last week that while he was mayor of the metro, Herman Mashaba took instructions from Malema regarding tenders in Johannesburg.
During the interview, Zille was asked about her relationship with Mashaba, who represented the DA as mayor but is now the leader of ActionSA.
READ | Former allies become bitter enemies: Mashaba and Zille battle for Joburg’s top post
Both Zille and Mashaba are vying to become mayor of Johannesburg.
After leaving the DA in 2019, Mashaba accused Zille of being taken over by “right-wing elements”.
Zille, for her part, has consistently referred to Mashaba as an “EFF mayor”.
In the interview, Zille said she had “absolutely nothing” against Mashaba but claimed he disliked her because she had referred to the EFF’s influence on him.
She said that though Mashaba had been the DA’s appointee as mayor of Johannesburg, “he allowed Julius Malema to dictate major decisions and capture… City Power”.
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Zille added that Malema dictated to Mashaba which fleet tenders were in the interest of his “front companies”.
Further, she alleged that Malema instructed Mashaba to appoint now disgraced former top cop Shadrack Sibiya as head of the Johannesburg metro police’s anti-corruption unit.
In his letter of demand, Malema said Zille’s remarks were defamatory and were “deliberately meant to impugn the integrity and good name of our client” by suggesting that Malema was dishonest and lacked integrity, was corrupt and abused his political influence to “unlawfully control public bodies and public procurement processes, including by capturing City Power and dictating the fleet tender”.
The letter continues:
Your statements are not expressions of opinion, but allegations of fact for which you have furnished no basis. They have been published to the public at large on a widely accessible platform and republished in the media and are calculated to cause serious harm to the good name and reputation of our client as a public and political figure.
The EFF leader claimed that Zille’s remarks were made “deliberately to exact political revenge on our client and the EFF”.
“The defamatory statements are made in an attempt to seek your revenge against our client for being your strongest opposition nationwide, other than the ANC in the political sphere.”
One of the DA’s main campaign messages ahead of last week’s local government elections was: “Keep the ANC/EFF out.”
Malema wants Zille to retract the allegations via a public statement in which she apologises for them. He said the apology should be shared across all her social media accounts and issued as a public statement in her own name.
Helen Zille has claimed that Malema dictated “major decisions” during Herman Mashaba’s tenure as mayor of Johannesburg.
Graphic: Sharlene Rood/News24. Images: Siphesihle Mmusane/Gallo Images; Lubabalo Lesolle/Gallo Images; Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images
The EFF has demanded that it “be sent by you to all media houses with which you have a relationship”, adding that the EFF would also distribute the public statement via its communications teams.
“The form and content of the public statement is to be submitted to us for approval before it is published,” read Malema’s demands.
The letter warned that if Zille failed to apologise to Malema by close of business on Wednesday, “we hold instructions to institute further legal action against you, without further notice, including a claim for damages and an interdict restraining any further publication of the statements”.
She initially responded on X with a post simply reading “No” before following up with a lawyers’ letter of her own.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated following comment from Zille’s legal representation on Tuesday evening.
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