photo: (by obakeng maje)

Polokwane – Julius Malema – President Jacob Zuma’s most prominent critic and an advocate of mining nationalisation – appears in court on Wednesday on corruption charges that his supporters say are politically motivated.

Police said they would close roads for the hearing on Wednesday around the courthouse in Polokwane, the provincial capital of Malema’s native Limpopo, 350km north of Johannesburg, for one of the biggest trials since the end of apartheid in 1994.

“No lawlessness will be tolerated and those who break the law will be arrested immediately,” police said in a statement issued before Malema’s supporters began a night vigil on Tuesday.

An arrest warrant was issued last week for the former ANC Youth League leader, with local media saying he was facing charges of fraud, corruption and money laundering in the awarding of government contracts in Limpopo.

The hearing on Wednesday is expected to last only a few minutes with prosecutors reading out the charges against him. The court is then likely to release him on bail.

Hundreds of Malema’s young supporters sang songs during the raucous vigil at Nirvana Civic Centre in Polokwane including one entitled “It’s time to fire Zuma”.

They said Malema is being persecuted for calling into question Zuma’s leadership before an ANC vote in December where Zuma is seeking re-election as president of the party that dominates South African politics.

“The laying of these charges demonstrates that the bid for President Zuma’s new term as ANC leader has entered a new phase,” Klaas Mabumda, spokesperson for the Limpopo ANC Youth League which still backs Malema, told Reuters.

Malema was expelled by the ruling African National Congress in April for causing rifts in the party, but has kept up his anti-Zuma tirades, saying the polygamist president should be removed since he pays more attention to his personal life than to running Africa’s biggest economy.

His supporters see him as an eventual leader of the ANC but at 31 he is too young to replace Zuma at the head of the party that has governed South Africa for nearly two decades.

The Youth League’s new leaders, who still back Malema, dismissed the charges as a politically motivated gambit to silence Zuma’s most vocal critic.

“State institutions must never be used to settle political scores because that will plunge the country into a banana republic and confirms our view that we are becoming a police state,” they said in a statement.

The ANC establishment has condemned Malema as an opportunist but has remained mostly silent on the court case.

Malema stormed back from the political wilderness in August, blaming Zuma’s administration for the police killing of 34 strikers at a platinum mine – the deadliest security incident since the end of white-minority rule.

Malema rose from poverty with populist calls to seize white-owned farmland and for a government takeover of crucial sectors of Africa’s largest economy.

Calling himself an “economic freedom fighter”, he has revived a call for nationalisation of the mines, an option shunned so far by the government because it would bankrupt the country. However, the debate unnerves investors as the industry accounts for six percent of national economic output.

With a penchant for expensive cars, Swiss watches and parties, Malema has been under investigation by the police’s elite Hawks detective division for alleged corruption relating to government contracts in Limpopo.

Malema has also been given a bill for nearly $2-million for unpaid taxes, the South African Revenue Service said at the weekend. – Reuters

Ajax Cape Town, who have not beaten Orlando Pirates away since 2008, lost again on Tuesday evening.

Classy goals by Sifiso Myeni and Takesure Chinyama made coach Roger de Sa smile as Pirates took all the points off Ajax at Orlando Stadium.

De Sa started with Thulasizwe Mbuyane up front, supported by Myeni, Daine Klate and Tlou Segolela – three wingers in essence – which baffled commentators as to how they were going to line up.

But while Segolela was off form, Myeni – playing more through the middle – and Klate both fired and helped Bucs to the victory.

Myeni’s goal came in the 55th minute and was a great piece of individual skill followed by an excellent strike.

Chinyama’s goal came on the back of him being booed by sections of the crowd, even though he had only come on as a second-half substitute.

The big Zimbabwean quickly shut the fans up though, when he turned sharply and powered in a left footed drive in the dying seconds of the game.

The opening half lacked quality with both sides giving the ball away too easily.

But while the home side dominated, Ajax restricted Pirates to shooting from distance and each time Sander Westerveld came out on top.

Bucs should have gone ahead after 22 minutes when Segolela got into space behind the left-back, but while he did very well to go around Westerveld, he was off balance when he shot and Nazeer Allie got back to clear off the line.

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Johannesburg – Workers at several Anglo American Platinum mines have decided to continue their strike, despite management threats to dismiss all those who didn’t show up to work by Monday evening.

“There is no one going back to work, guaranteed 105%, there is no one going to work the night shift today,” worker representative Siphamandla Makhanya told local radio after a short meeting with miners on Monday.

Amplats, the world’s top platinum producer, resumed operations last week at the five mines in the Rustenburg platinum belt that it had earlier shut down over safety concerns.

The company first threatened the miners with dismissal if they missed work on September 19, before pushing back the date a few more times, with the latest set for Monday evening.

Amplats considers the strike illegal.

“We have given people until the night shift, and the night shift has not started yet. We can check tomorrow,” Amplats spokesperson Mpumi Sithole said earlier in the day.

The strikers, who hope to meet with management on Tuesday, are pushing for at least the 11-22% raises that Lonmin miners at the nearby Marikana mine received after a deadly strike that left 46 dead.

AFP