Julius Malema and His US$17,000 Breitling Watch
Take a look at Julius Malema's house in Johannesburg. Apparently he only earns R20,000 per month (approx $2,800).
Julius-Malema's house in Limpopo
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Just look at that, nice nehhhhhhh, I love the mountain views….
Now this is really funny. The guy built a room for his car, not a garage people, a room upstairs for his range rover sport.
Look at the room upstairs
I thought that was funny enough until I saw his car REGISTRATION.
http://www.tvsa.co.za/default.asp?blogname=juliusmalema&articleid=10872
Malema's R140m tender riches
ANC Youth League (ANCYL) president Julius Malema’s company has won at least R140?million in government tenders over the past two years, a City Press investigation has established.
Malema’s engineering company, SGL Engineering Projects, has scooped tenders for sewage and cemetery services, among others, from various municipalities in Limpopo. Malema has two homes worth R4.5?million which are not mortgaged, a love of Breitling watches which retail at R250 000 a pop, and he lives a life of luxury.
While he will not say how much he earns, his salary cannot cover his lifestyle – but revelations about his business interests may finally explain where he gets his millions.
Cosatu has called for lifestyle audits of politicians, while the national treasury is investigating corruption and maladministration of provincial tender systems.
Malema (28), and his business partner at SGL Engineering, Lesiba Cuthbert Gwangwa, 31, are multi-faceted young businessmen. Their company has won tenders for road construction, street paving, sewer reticulation, bulk water supply, landfill sites, cemeteries, central business district upgrades and provision of drainage systems.
These contracts included:
- Eight tenders worth R66.4 million from Mopani district municipality for the construction of roads and the building of a fire station and sewer reticulation in the Modjadji area. According to a parliamentary response from the municipality, all projects were completed on time – “excluding three which are still under construction and are on course”.
- ?Five contracts valued at R28?million from Tzaneen municipality for upgrading the CBD, a cemetery, community parks and a multi-purpose centre.
- A R27.9-million street-paving contract from Greater Letaba municipality. The six-month project was not completed on time because “emerging sub-contractors with capacity challenges were appointed”.
- ?An unspecified tender for R6.8?million in Makhado. The contract was not completed on time and was extended by six months
- A R5.1-million tender for the supply of bulk water in Mhinga and Lambani villages in the Vhembe district municipality. The company completed the job in December 2008, three months late.
- ?A R2.1-million sewer tender for the Waterberg district municipality. The project was implemented by Tzaneen-based construction company Selby and was completed on schedule on June 30 last year.
- A R1.9-million contract for an unspecified tender in Lepelle-Nkumpi municipality. The municipality withheld R1.3 million of the payment “because the contract was not completed due to poor performance by the contractor”.
For at least four of the tenders, the company failed to complete the jobs and received extensions. Only the Lepelle-Nkumpi district withheld payment, while the others gave the company extensions to finish the jobs.
The provincial department of local government and housing said reasons for the delays and failures ranged from “emerging sub-contractors with capacity challenges were appointed” to “poor performance by the contractor”.
Malema received about 21 multi-million-rand tenders from eight of the 31 municipalities in Limpopo in the 2008/9 financial year, according to answers to questions posed by the Congress of the People (Cope) in the provincial legislature. Some municipalities failed to answer questions.
Malema raked it in from the Mopani, Vhembe and Waterberg district municipalities and the Lepelle-Nkumpi, Greater Letaba, Mutale, Makhado and Tzaneen local municipalities.
These are some of the poorest municipalities in the province and some have consistently received poor audit reports from the Auditor- General.
SGL Engineering is made up of SGL Engineering Projects CC (of which Gwangwa is sole director) and SGL Engineering Projects (Pty) Ltd, which lists both Malema and Gwangwa as directors. The company operates out of Flora Park in Polokwane.
Malema bought his R1?million home in Polokwane in May 2007 and finalised the sale of the R3.6 million mansion in Sandton two months ago. He has lived in the Sandton house since January 2008, when it was registered in his name for rates and services.
Deeds records indicate that Malema bought the house in August last year – about the time he hosted the party which annoyed some of his Sandton neighbours.
Malema’s lifestyle has come under scrutiny since labour federation Cosatu called on President Jacob Zuma to conduct an audit of ANC politicians and senior government officials who seemed to live a lifestyle beyond their obvious income.
Malema referred questions about his salary as ANCYL president to the ruling party’s treasurer, Mathews Phosa, who said the matter was confidential.
When City Press yesterday asked Malema for comment, he sent a text message back. “Are you married?”
“Yes,” answered the journalist.
“Go and ask your partner those questions,” he responded and refused to comment further.
In a second attempt, City Press contacted ANCYL spokesperson Floyd Shivambu, a close ally of Malema. While the journalist was talking to Shivambu, Malema grabbed the phone and barked: “Are you the person I just spoke to? I answered you already.” He then dropped the phone.
Asked what impact Malema’s failure to complete some of the tenders had on service delivery in the affected municipalities, Limpopo local government and housing spokesperson Clayson Monyela replied: “These people were hired by the municipalities. They are autonomous and do not even consult us before awarding the tenders because they do not have to.”
Cope Limpopo leader Sello Moloto asked for the tender information in the legislature.
“My wild guess would be that Malema’s companies would have gained more than is recorded because some of the municipalities failed to respond to questions.”
- City Press
How Julius Malema made his millions
NC Youth League president Julius Malema's millionaire lifestyle is being bank-rolled by lucrative government contracts awarded to his companies.
A Sunday Times investigation has found that, despite his claims to the contrary, Malema has benefited substantially from several tenders - and that most of them stem from his home province Limpopo, where he wields significant influence.
One of Malema's businesses, a small engineering firm, has profited from more than R130-million worth of tenders in just two years.
Malema's lavish lifestyle - from his luxury homes, Gucci suits, Breitling watches and parties where his guests are served R700 bottles of whisky and Moët&Chandon champagne - flies in the face of a politician who claims to earn a "middle income" salary.
Malema has often warned ANC supporters to be wary of individuals who cannot explain the source of their fortune.
But when asked about his business dealings yesterday, Malema said: "That is none of your business."
The Sunday Times has seen documents which show that SGL Engineering Projects and its subsidiaries, which Malema co-owns with Lesiba Gwangwa, have been awarded dozens of contracts since 2003 - often from cash-strapped municipalities in Limpopo.
The projects range from road and pavement construction to bulk water supply and upgrading cemeteries.
Asked about his involvement in SGL and its subsidiaries, and the string of tenders awarded to them, Malema responded: "What gives you the power to ask me that question? Let me tell you, I do not owe you any answer, to be honest. I am not accountable to you ... I am accountable to the ANCYL and ANC. My organisations have never raised any concerns about those things.
"There is no law that says politicians can't be businessmen. The problem with you is that when an African child is emerging and becoming successful, that is when you have a problem. That is your major problem that causes you sleepless nights.
"You want to see us dying in poverty. That is what you are committed to."
Official tender and government documents show that Malema - who has been dubbed a "tenderpreneur" (someone politically well-connected who has got rich through the government tendering system) - was involved in more than 20 contracts, each worth between R500000 and R39-million between 2007 and 2008.
Malema's share funded his two luxury homes, worth about R4.6-million.
ANC Youth League president, Julius Malema says investigations into the construction of a R16 million mansion in his name are unjustified, as he is a private citizen.
While he has been seen driving a fleet of cars from a C63 Mercedes-Benz AMG, to an Aston Martin and a Range Rover, none of them is registered in his name. The only car registered in his name is a 2005 Audi A4.
Malema, the son of a former domestic worker, matriculated in 2001. Now, as co-owner of SGL, Malema is worth millions.
But yesterday Malema repeatedly refused to discuss his involvement in SGL.
"I have nothing to do with their operations. I know nothing about what is happening in SGL, where are they making their money, where do they get tenders. I know nothing about that," he said.
Attempts to contact Gwangwa were unsuccessful.
Besides being listed as a consultant for the Waterberg District Municipality, Gwangwa also sits on the board of Magalies Water, a state-owned water board which provides a range of related water and sanitation services to Gauteng, Limpopo, North West and Mpumalanga.
Although the Sunday Times could not establish whether SGL and its subsidiaries have cashed in on Magalies Water contracts, the firm was involved in a R2.1-million sewerage upgrade project, which was awarded by the Waterberg District Municipality and completed in July last year.
Other projects awarded to SGL between 2007 and 2008, include:
* A R39.3-million sewer reticulation project awarded by the Mopani District Municipality;
* A R27.9-million street paving and drainage contract allocated by the Greater Letaba Local Municipality; and
* A R28-million tender for several municipal infrastructure projects from the Tzaneen Municipality.
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While the public documents reveal that some of the projects were completed on schedule, the majority of projects were not.
Other municipalities that have given contracts to SGL include Lepelle-Nkumpi, Bojanala Platinum District Municipality, Vhembe District Municipality, Mutale, Makhado, and Tzaneen District Municipality.
SGL was also awarded a tender by Roads Agency Limpopo (RAL), which has a budget of over R2-billion, and which is headed by Sello Rasethaba, a close friend of Malema.
Rasethaba was appointed last year shortly after Malema's ally, Limpopo premier Cassel Mathale, took office.
Another company that has boosted Malema's bank balance is Ever Roaring Investments, which made millions from managing and organising the state-funded annual Mapungubwe Jazz Festival in Polokwane.
According to government officials and politicians who oversaw the awarding of the multi-million-rand contract, it never went out to tender - until recently.
Last year the contract was awarded by tender to Ziyaphenduka Promotions.
Government officials in Limpopo painted a detailed picture of how the ANCYL president's businesses secured repeated tenders.
While Malema's companies often bid for the tenders, some of the contracts are awarded to contractors closely linked to him, who then subcontract his company.
Malema, through SGL, was recently selected as a service provider for government projects including the "implementation of roads and storm-water projects" for the current financial year.
SGL would therefore be a frontrunner in the rush to benefit from the Limpopo government's request for a R5-billion loan from the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), to build and upgrade roads in the province.
The Sunday Times has established that Limpopo province has applied for the loan, but the development bank's Rosemary Mangope declined to comment.
The SA Communist Party and trade union federation Cosatu have repeatedly warned against "a culture of tenderpreneurship".
SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande described tenderpreneurs as the "biggest threat to our revolution", and Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi has called for a "lifestyle audit" of politicians ''living in expensive houses and throwing lavish parties".
Malema said he would welcome such an audit. "All of us need to be audited. We are agreeing with Cosatu, as the youth league. We are saying that anyone high profile in politics must be audited.
"We are prepared to go for a lifestyle audit, conducted by the democratic institutions of our government - if that (process) is well arranged."
Finance minister Pravin Gordhan this week announced that a task team would investigate corruption in tender and tender and procurement processes in all nine provincial governments
* Malema's businesses all share an office bought and registered under Segwalo Consulting Engineers in Limpopo's capital, Polokwane.
The office, in Fauna Park, was bought for R1-million in August 2006, with a bond registered for R950000 with First National Bank. Besides SGL and Ever Roaring Investments, Malema is also a director of Blue Nightingale Trading 61 and 101 Junjus Trading.
In his own words
* "We are the elite that has been deliberately produced by the ANC as part of its policy to close the gap between blacks and whites in this country. It was the ANC that made it possible that, as part of that elite, some of us are now able to live in the suburbs." - Explaining in December 2008 that the salary he receives from the party makes him part of the black middle class.
* "People go to the township and boast about drinking imported, expensive liquor and the German sedans they drive. This is an insult to the people. What type of message are you sending when you change cars like you are changing shirts?" - Speaking at Esselen Park, where the ANC held its three-day election manifesto conference in December 2008.
* "Being involved in business compromises the independence of the ANCYL because every time you open your mouth, you must check if business will be happy or not." - Following Malema's decision to close down the ANCYL's investment arm, Lembede Investments, which was fraught with allegations of corruption.
* "Never be scared to iron out problems with your mayors and municipal managers because they are your servants. We voted them into power so that they can serve us and not enrich themselves or those close to them." - Speaking at the Peter Mokaba memorial lecture in Vereeniging in September last year.
* "The rich keep getting richer and it is white males who continue to own the means of production in the country. Not even Tokyo (Sexwale), who is the minister of human settlements, is an owner. Tokyo is owing the white baas because he wants to borrow from the banks. Who owns the banks? Tokyo is a rich man, but he doesn't own." - Speaking at the 16th national congress of the South African Students' Congress in Durban in December last year.
Related Article
ANC Youth League stand by Cipro claim
The ANC Youth League insisted that the Companies and Intellectual Properties Registration Office (Cipro) had not carried out instructions to remove its president Julius Malema from company directorship.
"That things has been clarified several times - the lawyer even showed e.tv the acceptance by Cipro of the application," said spokesman Floyd Shivambu.
On Tuesday Cipro insisted that Malema had not applied to be resigned as the director of three companies and co-director of one which did business in Limpopo, where Malema hails from.
"It's just confusion - as far as we are concerned, he has resigned," said Shivambu.
The league spent Tuesday conducting a media blitz on the controversy over the league president's assets and suggestions that he may have used his political influence to benefit the companies he was associated with.
They believe it is part of a conspiracy by several forces and say they have given a list given to them by the National Intelligence of people being targeted, to police.
They are being targeted because they are seen as supporters of President Jacob Zuma.
Shivambu would not say which police station it was handed in to.
"We are not going to give details of that but that list exists. It is an official document that is coming from the state intelligence."
http://www.postzambia.com/post-print_article.php?articleId=6317
HOW JULIUS MALEMA BECAME A MILLIONAIRE, ACCORDING TO CITY PRESS
Piet Rampedi and Adriaan Basson
Johannesburg - A company partly owned by ANC Youth League president Julius Malema’s family trust benefits directly from multimillion-rand tenders it helps to award.
Limpopo outsourced essential government functions to the company, which means it is engaged in the privatisation of state functions. Malema promotes nationalisation.
City Press can reveal that On-Point Engineers (Pty) Ltd - a private company headed by Malema’s former business partner, Lesiba Gwangwa, in which Malema’s Ratanang Family Trust owns a stake - cashes in on Limpopo road tenders it is supposed to manage.
On-Point was awarded a R51m tender by the Limpopo roads and transport department in 2009 to design, manage and implement road projects in the province through an outfit called the “project management unit”. This is outsourcing, a form of privatisation.
As part of the tender, On-Point’s duties include supporting the department with the adjudication and awarding of road tenders.
Confidential agreements
Confidential agreements
A document in the possession of City Press reveals that On-Point’s involvement in state tenders doesn’t stop there. The company also signs confidential “back-to-back” agreements with successful contractors, giving it a share of between 50% and 90% of the profits of tenders it helped to award.
The details of these back-to-back agreements are contained in confidential memorandums of understanding, signed between On-Point and contractors to the department. City Press has a pro forma memorandum that is used.
The parties are barred from sharing any information about the agreements with third parties.
“Any information shared by the service provider with the National Treasury will be shared on a statistical basis and no names will be made known unless the express written consent has been obtained from the person whose name is to be made known,” reads one of the clauses.
A National Treasury employee said that government could not outsource functions like this and it appeared that this clause violated constitutional provisions of transparency. Both this person and a businessman who understands the tender system said the back-to-back contracts were illegal and On-Point was conflicted as it could not be both tender referee and beneficiary.
Malema admits owning shares
Malema admits owning shares
Two company insiders, three youth league leaders, four business people, two senior civil servants and a provincial ANC leader told City Press that the confidential contract with On-Point was a requirement for any firm that wanted to benefit from projects overseen by the project management unit that the company manages.
On Friday, the Mail & Guardian reported that Malema admitted to owning shares in On-Point through the Ratanang Family Trust, of which he is a co-trustee. The other trustee is his grandmother, Sarah.
“Yes, we are close to On-Point. We are shareholders as a family,” Malema told the paper, declining to elaborate on the extent of the trust’s shareholding. He said he had not influenced any of On-Point’s tenders, adding: “I just queue when the dividends are due.”
According to the firm’s website, On-Point and, by extension, Malema’s family trust have benefited from at least eight other government tenders, excluding the project management unit contract.
This includes the construction of a high school, the upgrading of roads from gravel to tar and sewer reticulation in the Mopani District Municipality.
Growing enterprise
Growing enterprise
City Press can reveal that On-Point is a growing enterprise. It was recently appointed by the provincial local government and housing department (run by Clifford Motsepe, a close Malema ally) as consulting engineers on a low-cost housing project near Seshego.
In September 2009, City Press reported that Limpopo roads and transport MEC Pinky Kekana had suspended R300m worth of roads tenders and frozen Roads Agency Limpopo’s R1.2bn budget before firing the agency’s board.
Kekana later transferred the R500m maintenance budget of Roads Agency Limpopo (the provincial parastatal overseeing Limpopo’s road network) to a project management unit that is run by On-Point.
A National Treasury source said this might be illegal.
Malema’s admission of shareholding in On-Point again raises questions about the true purpose and administration of the Ratanang Family Trust, whose sole purpose is to look after the interests of Malema’s 5-year-old son.
Malema’s admission of shareholding in On-Point again raises questions about the true purpose and administration of the Ratanang Family Trust, whose sole purpose is to look after the interests of Malema’s 5-year-old son.
Read more on: ancyl | lesiba gwangwa | pinky kekana | julius malema | clifford motsepe | corruption
