South Africa's Julius Malema: The opposition leader who has thrown Africa's oldest surviving political party into disarray again

In 2012, Africa's oldest surviving political party expelled South African opposition leader Julius Malema for "bringing the party into disrepute" and "sowing internal divisions". Fourteen years on, he has shown he can still throw the African National Congress (ANC) into disarray.

"Our long game is that we want to take over this country. These things are exposing [and] the ANC is becoming fragmented," Mr Malema tells me in a glass box studio emblazoned with the red and black logo of his Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party in their headquarters, Winnie Madikizela Mandela House.

As I sit down with the 45-year-old former ANC youth leader in downtown Johannesburg, the leadership of the ANC are scrambling to attend emergency meetings in Cape Town to close ranks behind Cyril Ramaphosa.

The president is preparing to face a 31-member multi-party impeachment committee in the months ahead. The alleged theft of $580,000 (£435,000) in cash from a sofa in President Ramaphosa's private farm will be publicly interrogated by some of his staunchest political opponents in parliament.

This harsh test of Mr Ramaphosa's power and political image has been propelled by a constitutional court case ruling that parliament violated the constitution by blocking impeachment proceedings in 2022 - following a legal case launched by the EFF and the African Transformation Movement (ATM) party.

As Mr Malema celebrated his victory outside the constitutional court, he called on President Ramaphosa to resign. In a speech the evening before I sat down with Mr Malema, the president addressed the nation and said: "While there have been calls in some circles for me to resign, nothing in the constitutional court judgement compels me to resign my office.

"That attitude of Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday of saying I'm not going to resign. Firstly, you are showing the constitutional court a middle finger. Secondly, the [section 89] panel that said there is prima facie evidence - the president has got a case to answer. You showed them a middle finger," Mr Malema tells me, visibly disgruntled by the president's speech.

"He's remaining. He's fighting. He wants a fight. You'll fight it. You want to know the impeachment process, it will leave you naked."

He lists all the ways the proceedings will get granular and exposing for Cyril Ramaphosa - from interviews with farm workers to shared personal WhatsApps.

"The emperor will leave that parliament naked."

Malema's party previously targeted another president

Mr Malema is speaking from experience. He has been here before with another sitting president - Jacob Zuma. Exactly a decade ago, the EFF took Mr Zuma to task for corruption and won a landmark case in the constitutional court after launching a "pay back the money" campaign that propelled the small new party into prominence. The former president resigned in 2018 after impeachment proceedings.

Is he applying the same formula to President Ramaphosa?

Mr Malema said: "Absolutely - and you know I'm a gentleman. If you resign, I look the other way because... the highest form of punishment you can give to a sitting president is to make sure he does not finish his term.

"So once you're done with that, you can leave him to go and enjoy life as an old man and life goes on and we continue to serve our people with a leadership that is not corrupt."

But Julius Malema is no stranger to corruption charges. In 2012, he appeared in a regional court on charges of fraud, corruption and money laundering. The charges were thrown out in 2015 because of prosecution delays - he was never formally acquitted. In 2013, his properties were seized and auctioned off to settle $1m (£750,000) in unpaid taxes.

In 2018, Mr Malema was among a group accused of looting $108m (£81m) from a South African bank named VBS. He denied the allegations and a parliamentary probe was inconclusive after investigators said they did not have sufficient information.

With his history of corruption charges, does Mr Malema hold himself and his party to a different standard than he holds the president and the ANC?

"That comparison is comparing apples and bananas because there's only one president of South Africa and those high standards apply to the president of South Africa. If that debate starts in the EFF to remove me from the position then I'll be removed by the membership of the EFF and I was never found guilty of any corruption and was found guilty for discharging a political responsibility," he says.

'I never said the whites must go'

Mr Malema is currently appealing a five-year sentence after being found guilty of firearm offences after a video surfaced of him firing a gun at an EFF anniversary rally and a case was filed by the Afrikaaner rights group Afriforum.

The group has advocated for targeted sanctions against Mr Malema and has filed other legal cases against him for hate speech against white South Africans, including his singing of an old struggle song where he publicly chanted "kill the Boer, kill the farmer".

The video was shown by US President Donald Trump in a meeting with President Ramaphosa where he alleged a white genocide in South Africa.

"They say I don't like white. I never said the whites must go. Even Trump after smoking what he smokes, he must listen to me proper. I never said whites must go - I said we want our land which must be shared equitably."

The topic of land reform brings out Mr Malema's trademark fiery persona seen at the forefront of rallies, parliamentary brawls and court proceedings but he is generally muted as he sits in front of me.

He is conversational and calm in a white cotton shirt. His trademark blue-faced Breitling watch has been replaced with a Rolex Explorer with a black dial and his dark trousers round off to dark brown Gucci loafers.

The contradiction in his lavish lifestyle and radical left Marxist politics, with a platform built on land expropriation and nationalising mines, is often a point of discussion.

Where does Malema get his money?

I ask him how he can afford the watches, cars and houses with a parliamentarian's salary - where is he getting all his money from?

"I don't have a house. I don't have a car. I'm the poorest politician, as it were. I drive the EFF car. So, your research should have told you that he doesn't have a car and to research if a person has got a house. It is a quick search, shame.

"You don't even have to toil when you look for it. Just take a computer and go to deeds, office register and then you search my name. It will tell you he doesn't have anything."

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An online search brings up investigations by South African journalists who report that Mr Malema's real estate portfolio is worth $1.2m (£900,000). In their book, Malema; Money, Power and Patronage, journalists Micah Reddy and Pauli van Wyk allege that he has become a millionaire over the last decade after benefiting from a variety of illegal schemes.

"This lavish lifestyle that you have built in your head, you must start taking it out," he continues. Maybe blame it on the EFF because it is them who give us cars, who give us security and so on and so forth. I work. I've got a house in Cape Town. I've got an EFF car and I'm also a businessman in my own right."

As we leave the EFF headquarters, luxury cars fill the basement that were not there before Mr Malema arrived.

Has he given it up, I ask?

"I grew up," he replies.

(c) Sky News 2026: South Africa's Julius Malema: The opposition leader who has thro