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A campaign to get Barclays-owned Absa to pay back apartheid debt is led by “State Security” and the controversial Gupta family, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema said on Monday.
The EFF has been attacked in recent times for being complacent after announcing that it would occupy the banking giant’s head office.
This followed a leaked draft report by the Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane on the investigation into Absa, which shows that the bank was implicated in the looting of state funds during the apartheid regime.
Malema said his party would not join “Mickey Mouses funded by the Guptas and State Security Minister David Mahlobo”.
“We will occupy Absa in our own time … we will not be told by EFF enemies on how to fight Absa. We will hold Absa through our own terms, at our own time,” Malema told reporters in Johannesburg following the EFF’s plenum over the weekend.
He alleged that those calling for the occupation of Absa were on State Security Minister David Mahlobo’s payroll and the Guptas.
“State Security dished out money to buy adverts in the City Press to occupy Absa, the same cash that was used to form a bogus union in Marikana … why are they not calling [President] Jacob Zuma to go occupy Absa with them?” asked Malema.
He added that the EFF will not announce the time and date on which it would occupy Absa, but that the bank would one day wake up “with a sea of red” of EFF supporters outside its premises.
Mkhwebane’s report found that Absa was liable for the repayment of R2.25-billion bailout from government to the Bankorp group, which was bought by Absa, in the early 1990s.
But the bank defended itself against the allegations.