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By Daniel Friedman

Digital news editor


Analyst hilariously hits back at EFF ‘shameless thugs’ who threatened to sue him

Prince Mashele has a sense of humour and he's not afraid to use it in his response to an EFF lawyer's letter.


Comments made in an SABC interview by political analyst Prince Mashele have led to a lawyer’s letter from Malema and the EFF, threatening to sue him for half a million unless he publicly apologises for saying, among other things, that the EFF is a rogue party who are “graduates” of the ANC school of corruption.

Now, Mashele has hit back in a hilarious letter of his own.

In it, he acknowledged talking about those implicated in the VBS Bank scandal on SABC, saying “it is quite possible” that some of the people he spoke about “are shameless thugs wearing red t-shirts and berets” and that others “may hold elevated positions in pseudo-revolutionary, kleptocratic outfits that masquerade as political parties”.

He went on to accuse the “VBS thugs” of “looting” his “time” as he was asked to do numerous interviews on the subject. He noted that while “there are many ways to recover looted money, looted time is gone forever”.

He then asked the EFF’s lawyers if their clients had a sense of humour.

“I hope the hilarity of the idea of threatening to sue a political analyst for expressing a political opinion, which is what political analysts must do, has not escaped your clients,” he wrote.

READ MORE: I will try expose Malema’s bank statements if EFF sue me – analyst

“It is like threatening to sue a politician for expressing a political view, or, to bring matters home, threatening to sue a lawyer for expressing a legal opinion.”

He then expressed the hope that the EFF was not so desperate for half a million that they couldn’t wait for him to get “crucial clarity” about the lawyer’s letter they sent him.

He listed a series of hilarious questions aimed at the party and their lawyers including: “What is their understanding of the distinction between a ‘fact’ and an ‘opinion’?”

The letter can be read below.

The Citizen reported on Tuesday that, in an interview on 702, Mashele said there was “absolutely no way” he would back down and that he welcomed the opportunity to prove “how corrupt these fellows are”.

He said he would “make an application to get the bank statements of Julius Malema, of [Malema’s engineering company] On Point, and the entire EFF” if they went through with suing him.

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