JOHANNESBURG: South African authorities have issued an arrest warrant for ANC renegade Julius Malema, President Jacob Zuma’s most vocal critic and a key backer of a wave of wildcat strikes in the mines that spread yesterday to bullion producer Anglogold Ashanti.
The former Youth League leader, who was expelled from the ruling African National Congress in April for indiscipline, was liaising with police about his appearance in court next week, his lawyer, Nicqui Galaktiou, told Reuters.
“We are busy arranging Mr. Malema’s appearance next week,” she said. “We don’t have a confirmed date yet. We have not seen the warrant of arrest. We don’t know what the charges are. He won’t be jailed.”
She added that the charges stemmed from an investigation by the police’s elite Hawks detective division, which has been probing 31-year-old Malema for alleged corruption relating to the award of government contracts in his native Limpopo province. The Hawks’ Colonel Mahlangu had advised Malema and his lawyers of the existence of a warrant, she said.
South Africa’s City Press newspaper said Malema, who has been fanning the flames of discontent in the mines by addressing crowds of strikers and calling for nationwide industrial action, was facing charges of fraud, money laundering and corruption.
Malema has also unnerved investors by calling for the nationalisation of mines in the world’s top platinum producer.
The wave of wildcat strikes started with a mass walkout at Lonmin’s Marikana platinum mine in early August, and culminated a week later with the police killing of 34 striking miners in the deadliest security incident since the 1994 end of apartheid.
The unrest hit AngloGold on Friday when workers downed tools at its Kopanang mine in South Africa’s Free State province.
“The night shift embarked on an unprotected strike at Kopanang and the morning shift didn’t go down either,” company spokesman Alan Fine said.
Reuters
