Malema implicates Batohi in EFF’s Gordhan ‘conspiracy’

At the launch of the EFF’s new manifesto at the Giant Stadium in Soshanguve, Gauteng, on Saturday, the party’s leader used part of his speech to level accusations at South Africa’s new national director of public prosecutions (NDPP), Shamila Batohi.

“I’ve got no trust in the newly appointed NPA head. She is very close to Pravin Gordhan,” Malema said.

“She is controlled by a group that is very close to Pravin,” he continued. “They appointed her to protect the crimes of Pravin Gordhan and the cabal of Gordhan and Cyril Ramaphosa.

“The EFF will appoint an independent NPA head who is going to arrest criminals, whether they are EFF criminals [or not],” Malema added before moving on to other subjects.

READ MORE: Shivambu lashes out at Gordhan in paranoid blog post

The EFF has been accused of flip-flopping regarding their view of Gordhan, as in 2016, while the party was loudly proclaiming that Zuma Must Fall, he began to expose alleged corruption by the Gupta family, leading to Malema praising the minister and calling on South Africans to back him.

Soon after Zuma was removed as president, however, the EFF leader and his party set their sites on Gordhan, who has since become their ultimate nemesis.

The party has been accused of creating or perpetuating “conspiracy theories” about the minister.

Malema lashed out at Gordan in a speech at the EFF’s fifth birthday celebrations in July, 2018, saying it was the minister who controlled South Africa rather than the president. He called Gordhan a “Stalinist”, a “control freak”, and a “gangster”.

READ MORE: Malema agrees with ‘Stalinist’, ‘control freak’, ‘gangster’ Gordhan

At a press conference confronting the VBS scandal in October, 2018, Malema repeated the party’s assertion that Gordhan was the mastermind behind a clique that had captured the National Treasury.

According to the EFF leader, Gordhan and Treasury were behind the VBS allegations, which he believed were a reaction to the party’s supposed role in former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene’s departure.

“We know that Pravin Gordhan and his faction are angry about this and they’ve launched a media attack on the EFF to try and shut us up,” he alleged.

Also in October, EFF second-in-command Floyd Shivambu published a rambling, paranoid blog post levelling several accusations against Gordhan who he accused of running a “cabal” and “operating a parallel state apparatus”.

READ MORE: Malema declares war on Ramaphosa, Motsepe and Gordhan

And in November 2108, the EFF released a statement calling Gordhan a “master manipulator” who was an “accomplice to the Guptas’ activities”.

This is the first time Malema has linked Batohi to Gordhan.

A political analyst, however, told The Citizen Malema may be setting his sites on the new NPA boss because the EFF had been implicated in the VBS Bank scandal.

“The EFF has been nervous about some of their members being implicated in such scandals as the VBS Bank. This is an effort to try to discredit the new NPA boss. This is no surprise because they can potentially feel the heat due to their members’ alleged involvement in the VBS,” said Daniel Silke.

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