The Hawks confirmed that they were investigating African National Congress Youth League president Julius Malema for fraud and corruption, eNews reported on Saturday.
“From the information that we have, we have enough to tell us that we need to do a full investigation … there’s a lot that tells us that we have reason to worry,” Hawks spokesperson McIntosh Polela said.
The Hawks would examine the flow of money through companies linked to Malema, including the Ratanang family trust.
Polela said the Hawks would need time to work through large amounts of electronic data linked to Malema’s financial dealings and therefore could not say when the investigation would be completed.
ENews also reported that the South African Revenue Service (Sars) initiated its own investigation into Malema’s financial affairs and alleged failure to pay tax.
This came a day after the dates of the disciplinary hearings for both Malema and party spokesperson Floyd Shivambu were announced.
“The dates that have been established … are the 30 and 31 August, which we believe gives them adequate opportunity to prepare themselves for the case,” ANC national disciplinary committee chairperson Derek Hanekom told eNews on Friday.
Malema and Shivambu would be “charged individually”.
“Both … have been charged with various violations of the ANC constitution, including bringing the ANC into disrepute through his utterances and statements on Botswana and sowing divisions in the ranks of the African National Congress.”
Malema recently said the league would send a team to Botswana to consolidate local opposition parties and help bring about regime change. It believed the government there was “in full cooperation with imperialists” and undermining the “African agenda”.
The ANC publicly rebuked the league and the league in turn said it did not believe it was in the wrong or going against ANC policy. It expressed disappointment at being publicly rebuked before the matter had been internally discussed.