Malema ‘not scared’ of Madlanga commission but won’t be ‘treated like a child’

Malema maintains he has nothing to hide despite his name being mentioned several times. EFF leader Julius Malema said he is not “scared” of appearing before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry after his name was mentioned several times. He said this during a press conference in Johannesburg on Thursday. He also alluded to the style of questioning at the commission, saying it would never be used on him. “No one is going to treat me like a child; I am not a child. No other man is going to speak to me like I am a child, not me. I am an elected public representative and a leader of a political party. I am not going to be shouted at by anyone. No one can do that to me. “If it means prison let it be, arrest me, but you are not going to address me by belittling me. I do not care if you are a judge or a magistrate or a commissioner, no one speaks to me like I am a boy… I am not scared of anything, especially where I think I have not done nothing wrong. Do not think there is some scaremongering about Madlanga about me,” he said. Malema reiterated that he has nothing to hide. Evidence and insinuation at Madlanga commission Meanwhile, Malema said South Africans should be wary of “politically” motivated and “juvenile” insinuations drawn from the commission’s work. “Despite all attempts to cast doubt over the organisation and its leadership, there is no evidence that ties the EFF to any wrongdoing. “We encourage the commission and its evidence leaders to rely on evidence drawn from verifiable and credible processes of the law and legal institutions,” he said. Malema expressed concern about the use of news articles in the commission. He described them as unreliable and potentially misleading. “The use of news articles by such a credible commission only serves to undermine the credibility of the process and turn the commission itself into a weapon of propaganda.” Transparency Malema called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to make public the commission’s preliminary reports that were given to him. “Those reports do not belong to the president of the republic but belong to the people of South Africa. To handle preliminary reports and findings with secrecy undermines the constitutional principle of transparency and risks selective and politically motivated conduct as it relates to prosecutions and arrests related to the work of the commission,” he said.