WATCH: Police must probe Gordhan’s Canadian account – Malema

Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema lodged a criminal case against minister of public enterprises Pravin Gordhan at the Brooklyn police station in Pretoria on Tuesday.

After lodging the case, the EFF leader spoke to supporters, telling them he wants the police to investigate a Canadian account where he alleges people were encouraged to put money in if they had problems with the South African Revenue Service (Sars).

Malema wants the police to demand the financial statements of Gordhan’s account from Canadian authorities. He has provided police with the account number and the name of the bank. The EFF leader has mentioned the account repeatedly in the past week, with the veracity of his claims not yet verified.

“An attack on Pravin is not an attack on Indians,” the EFF leader said to supporters. “We are attacking corruption.”

He said those who believed the EFF was targeting Gordhan were welcome to take their votes to the ANC as they did not understand the cardinal pillars of the EFF.

Malema also said he no longer wanted EFF members to be interviewed by journalists from the Sunday Times. The newspaper has accused him of intimidation tactics and for inciting his supporters against mainly female journalists.

The EFF case against Gordhan comes after he lodged a case against Malema on Monday.

Gordhan laid criminal defamation and incitement to commit violence charges against the EFF leader, who last week, while addressing hundreds of EFF supporters outside the Zondo commission of inquiry, accused Gordhan of enabling state capture.

Malema also called Gordhan a “dog” of white minority capital before roping in Gordhan’s daughter, accusing her of benefiting from multimillion-rand tenders from several government departments.

Gordhan has stated that Malema’s comments were hate speech with racial undertones.

He gave police details of all statements Malema and EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu made against him when he opened the crimen injuria and criminal defamation charges against the pair on Monday.

Gordhan has also lodged a defamation case at the Equality Court.

The EFF retaliated on Tuesday morning, marching to the Brooklyn precinct to lodge a case of their own.

They accuse the minister of alleged money-laundering, corruption, racketeering, fraud and perjury, as well as contravention of the Intelligence Act and the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act.

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