News / Africa
Julius Malema escapes political ban, for now
10 Feb 2014 at 13:35hrs | Views
Johannesburg - The North Gauteng High Court has ordered that EFF leader Julius Malema be placed under provisional sequestration.
Malema narrowly escaped being barred from public office on Monday when a judge placed him under "provisional sequestration" due to outstanding debts of R16 million to the tax authorities.
A full sequestration ruling would have prevented Malema from taking a seat in parliament after May 7 elections had his Economic Freedom Fighters party gained sufficient votes.
According to reports on Monday, the court denied Malema's application for a postponement.
His lawyer told Reuters that Malema, a strident critic of President Jacob Zuma, was considering an appeal against the provisional ruling even though it did not affect his political ambitions.
Malema's legal team asked the North Gauteng High Court on Monday to postpone his sequestration case.
Dolf Masoma, for Malema, said there were two aspects to his argument to have the case postponed.
The first was Malema had a corruption case pending against him. The second was Malema intended to apply to have his admission of liability set aside.
"The respondent [Malema] intends to bring to court... [an application] setting aside an admission of liability that was made by the respondent and that was made at a time when the applicant [SA Revenue Service] and the respondent were involved in negotiations to settle," Masoma told the court.
If the court set aside the admission of liability then an order made in the sequestration case would have to be set aside, he said.
Malema was not in court.
The Sars opposed the application for a postponement.
According to court documents, Malema owed R16 million plus interest after failing to submit tax returns between 2006 and 2010. In 2010, the Sars contacted Malema about his failure to submit tax returns.
It took Malema 18 months, after many attempts by the Sars, to file his outstanding returns.
Malema also failed to register the Ratanang Trust for tax purposes, and Sars had to do this on his behalf.
Malema narrowly escaped being barred from public office on Monday when a judge placed him under "provisional sequestration" due to outstanding debts of R16 million to the tax authorities.
A full sequestration ruling would have prevented Malema from taking a seat in parliament after May 7 elections had his Economic Freedom Fighters party gained sufficient votes.
According to reports on Monday, the court denied Malema's application for a postponement.
His lawyer told Reuters that Malema, a strident critic of President Jacob Zuma, was considering an appeal against the provisional ruling even though it did not affect his political ambitions.
Malema's legal team asked the North Gauteng High Court on Monday to postpone his sequestration case.
Dolf Masoma, for Malema, said there were two aspects to his argument to have the case postponed.
"The respondent [Malema] intends to bring to court... [an application] setting aside an admission of liability that was made by the respondent and that was made at a time when the applicant [SA Revenue Service] and the respondent were involved in negotiations to settle," Masoma told the court.
If the court set aside the admission of liability then an order made in the sequestration case would have to be set aside, he said.
Malema was not in court.
The Sars opposed the application for a postponement.
According to court documents, Malema owed R16 million plus interest after failing to submit tax returns between 2006 and 2010. In 2010, the Sars contacted Malema about his failure to submit tax returns.
It took Malema 18 months, after many attempts by the Sars, to file his outstanding returns.
Malema also failed to register the Ratanang Trust for tax purposes, and Sars had to do this on his behalf.
Source - additional reporting Sapa
