Details about why the law firm had abandoned Malema's case were confidential, said lawyer Nicqui Galaktiou. "We have not 'ditched him' …. We no longer act for Malema," she said.
Earlier in February, Galaktiou said the firm had been instructed to file papers opposing an application made to the North Gauteng High Court by the South African Revenue Services (Sars), to have Malema's estate sequestrated.
Malema had until February 18 to notify Sars whether he intended to oppose the application. According to newspaper reports, Malema had failed to meet the deadline.
If the application by Sars is successful, all Malema's properties will be placed under curatorship and auctioned off to pay a reported R16-million he owes Sars.
Malema also faces charges of fraud and racketeering related to the irregular awarding of a R52-million tender to On-Point Engineering.
His Ratanang Family trust was an indirect shareholder in the engineering company. That matter is scheduled to resume in court in April.
Ditched and insulted
Malema's lawyers have not been the only ones to have abandoned him. In January he said that he is being deserted by his friends, who now treat him as leper.
"I have lost a lot of friends. I am one person who believes that those who leave you during difficult moments were never with you even before …," he said.
"We've seen friends vacillating. We've seen friends bowing to the pressure of the enemy. We've seen friends speaking in tongues and some are even so ashamed to be seen with you in public because to them you look like you've got leprosy and some don't even take your calls. If they do, they are very impatient," he said.
In the same month it was reported that Malema opened a case against his childhood friend Boy Mamabolo over a threatening SMS.
Mamabolo, a loyal supporter of President Jacob Zuma, allegedly threatened to exhume Malema's mother's remains and throw them in front of his grandmother's house in Seshego, Limpopo.
The SMS read: "This time I want to show you that I am more brutal and exhume Mahlodi [Malema's mother] from the grave and lay her in front of [your grandmother's house]. You have done many bad things to me."
The threat could have been in retaliation for Malema allegedly asking Limpopo ANC Youth League secretary Jacob Lebogo and his ally, Jossie Buthane, to sleep with Mamabolo's girlfriend. ​​– Sapa