MALEMA: Money. Power. Patronage: 'Not only a story about Malema's money but about SA' - Pauli van Wyk

Every week The Money Show interviews the author or reviewer of a new or trending business book.

This week, Stephen Grootes talked to investigative journalist Pauli van Wyk about Malema: Money. Power. Patronage. which she co-authored with fellow journalist Micah Reddy.

The recently published book tracks how EFF founder Julius Malema has leveraged his political clout 'to bankroll his party and amass a personal fortune'.

It's a book not as much about this controversial political figure, but one into how he's made his money.

The authors trace Malema’s financial networks through key scandals, including the VBS Mutual Bank collapse, the On-Point Engineering tender saga, and influence-peddling within the City of Johannesburg.

And, as van Wyk emphasizes, Malema is also not a story only about money, it's a story about South Africa.

Here she cites the example of Cassel Mathale, premier of Limpopo at the time when Malema allegedly used his influence to have tenders awarded to friends and allies who has now ascended to the powerful position of Deputy Minister of Police.

"Mathale was part of and very much a suspect in the On-Point Engineering tender scandal, which the Hawks never investigated successfully... and now he's the Police Deputy Minister, holding a lot of power."

"We see from the very start in the Limpopo days how Malema had outsized influence in the political sphere in which he operates... people around Mathale and Malema were so powerful and could redirect and realign tenders, fraudulently."

This they can say, van Wyk notes, because then-public protector Thuli Madonsela found that the On-Point tender was fraudulently given to the company.

She outlines the pattern these alleged deals would normally follow.

"The usual pattern would be something like: a tender gets advertised, there's some sort of political influence that directs it towards friends or family... Money would flow through a certain number of companies until the company that's linked to Malema gets paid by either a (government) department or a related company."

"What may happen is that Malema receives boxes and envelopes full of cash; sometimes his properties or fleet of cars are paid for, or money flows to bank accounts linked to him - either his own slush funds or way back in the day when he wasn't as smart, it was the Ratanang Family Trust, a bank account directly linked to him."

As van Wyk puts it, it is important to understand that the EFF leader has since grown smarter as well as more influential - 'There are always people who are willing to assist him with either paying some of his SARS fees or who'd help him hide the money more efficiently, or he became just more smart in terms of the lawyering around it.'

The book quotes Malema himself extensively she says, and also makes use of court documents where he describes his own defence.

Description on Jonathan Ball Publishers:

Over the past two decades, Malema has leveraged his growing political clout to bankroll his party and amass a personal fortune. In this revealing book, investigative journalists Micah Reddy and Pauli van Wyk follow the money, demonstrating how Malema built his fiefdom.

They unearth astounding details about Malema’s old, seemingly forgotten scandals in Limpopo, where he and his cronies duped not only the public, but also each other. They trace how loot from the VBS Bank found its way to Malema and Floyd Shivambu, and expose their Economic Freedom Fighters’ rent-seeking in the metros of Johannesburg and Tshwane. The book shows how, over the years, Malema has refined his modus operandi, making it difficult for South Africa’s justice system to hold him accountable.

But it also tells a bigger story: About the insidious ways in which money courses through South African politics and how self-styled radical leaders exploit valid grievances about inequality to enrich themselves, stealing from the very people they claim to fight for. Malema lays bare the interplay between power and wealth – and its stark threat to our democracy.

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the interview with Pauli van Wyk