/ 19 July 2011

Malema dares revenue service to conduct lifestyle audit

Malema Dares Revenue Service To Conduct Lifestyle Audit

The South Africa Revenue Service (Sars) has not received any requests for a lifestyle audit of African National Congress Youth League leader Julius Malema, its spokesperson said on Tuesday.

“By the close of business yesterday [Monday], we hadn’t received anything,” said Sars spokesperson Adrian Lackay.

Democratic Alliance member of Parliament Dianne Kohler Barnard said at the weekend she intended writing a letter to Sars requesting that Malema be investigated.

This was after the Sunday Independent reported that Malema was building a mansion worth R16-million in Sandown, Johannesburg, while earning a salary of R25 000 per month.

“If we receive a request for an investigation, obviously we will consider it and establish the merits in the claims that the MP will make, and then we will proceed from there,” said Lackay.

The house would include a secure basement where he could hide in case of an attack on him.

Malema told the Star newspaper in a report on Tuesday that he would cooperate if Sars decided to probe him.

“Sars conducts lifestyle [audits] on anybody as and when they wish to do that,” he told the daily.

But he did not want to comment on the reports that he was planning to build himself a bunker.

“My life and what I do with my house is not a public issue. I am not a public representative,” Malema reportedly said. – Sapa