City Press on Monday challenged African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) president Julius Malema to take legal action if he truly believed a newspaper reporter faked his signature to portray him as a bad person.
“We take the allegation very seriously. He should sue us if he believes that we forged his signature,” said City Press editor-in-chief Ferial Haffajee.
Addressing members of the ANCYL during a 2011 local elections mobilisation rally on Sunday, Malema accused City Press of faking his signature.
The signature was reportedly faked to show that he was a company director.
The paper reported that Malema had lied when he told the media that he held no shares in a company that had won lucrative contracts in Limpopo.
The newspaper reported that, according to a company registration record, Malema owns 70% of shares in SGL.
He had also signed as a director, signed to pass power of attorney to his business partner and signed a third time to take up his majority shareholding.
Haffajee said Malema was given an opportunity to see the documents before the story was published.
“He did not come and see the documents. He only gave us an opinion piece, which we placed on page two,” she said.
The piece touched on stories published since the allegations about Malema’s involvement in SGL emerged last week.
Haffajee said she would consult the publication’s lawyer on Tuesday.
ANCYL spokesperson Floyd Shivambu said Malema’s lawyers would address the media in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
‘The media will never win’
At the rally on Sunday, Malema said: “We will not be broken by newspapers. They just put my name to sell newspapers. The journalist faked my signature because they want to portray me as a bad person.”
He described newspaper reports about him as a campaign aimed at demoralising the youth league.
“If I have done something wrong, President Jacob Zuma’s government has a right to arrest me. If I have done something wrong I must be prosecuted,” said Malema.
He said he would never steal from the “poor”.
“We are being baptised with fire. The youth league will never steal from the poor because we are children of those who suffered under the apartheid,” Malema said.
The youth league would never be broken by newspapers, which also reported bad things about Peter Mokaba, one of his predecessors, he said.
“Mokaba was portrayed as an apartheid spy because he represented change. The media will never win because we [youth league members] are encouraged by the spirits of our forefathers,” said Malema.– Sapa