The state wanted to seize the party leader’s possessions‚ but halted the effort at the last minute.

The withdrawal of a sequestration application against Economic Freedom Fighters president Julius Malema now frees him up to seize “state power”‚ the party’s KwaZulu-Natal branch said on Tuesday.

South African Revenue Service’s (SARS) abandonment of the court action on Monday‚ the branch said‚ “is an emphatic vindication of the thoughts and feelings of all sober and sane South Africans that the case was a malicious harassment of the EFF president aimed at destroying both him as a person” and the party.

Should SARS have succeeded in its application Malema would be prohibited from sitting in Parliament.

“The case reflects the extent to which critical state institutions have been compromised by the current administration to protect [President] Jacob Zuma and the incompetent and corrupt regime over which he presides from criticism‚” the statement said.

“The withdrawal enables president Malema and the EFF to focus firmly on its political program and imminent seizure of state power to truly liberate the masses of the people of South Africa from [the] ANC government’s corruption‚ arrogance and incompetence.”