JULIUS Malema yesterday continued to make wild allegations against Jacob Zuma, this time blaming the ANC president for allegedly planning to have him killed

Malema - the self-styled "revolutionary economic freedom fighter" - openly declared that, should he be killed, Zuma would have to be blamed. Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj, however, dismissed the allegation.

"You know that person [Malema] is accustomed to making wild allegations that are not based on reality," he said. "If they were true, he knows what steps to take."

Malema also said Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula had "signed a death warrant" against him and his immediate supporters - Friends of the Youth League.

Malema's conduct is said to have featured prominently in a recent ANC national executive committee meeting in which it was decided that people aligned to Friends of the Youth League - including suspended ANCYL secretary general Sindiso Magaqa and spokesman Floyd Shivambu - would be warned about their continued association with the group or face expulsion from the party.

Malema seemingly implied that Mapisa-Nqakula's reference to him as a "counter-revolutionary" was equal to her giving the go-ahead to have him assassinated.

Malema said: "If we die tomorrow, we would have been killed by Jacob Zuma and his people who do not have the interests of the people at heart. If we are illegally arrested tomorrow, we would have been arrested by Jacob Zuma and fair and free courts of law will set us free."

Elaborating further on the alleged assassination plot, Malema said: "We got it on good authority that there was an instruction to get rid of some of us."

Malema said he would not report the matter to police, whom he claimed were "complicit" in the plot.

"We will not report it to the police because we do not trust the police," he said. " If you go to the police, you will be inviting killers into your home."

He also revealed that he had consulted "legal representatives" after he was barred from addressing striking Marikana miners on Monday.

He said lawyers had also been consulted to "set aside the illegal, undeclared state of emergency" that had apparently been put in place when soldiers were deployed to Marikana last week.

Despite the unproven claims, Malema expressed confidence in his imminent return to the ANC.

He said sentiments following the party's elective conference in Mangaung, coupled with the need to whip up support for the ANC in the 2014 general elections, would work in his favour, because "we need everybody".

- molatlhwao@sowetan.co.za