EFF leader Julius Malema has announced that he will be taking legal action against former MP Thembinkosi Rawula.

Speaking to journalists during a media briefing held at the EFF offices in Braamfontein, Malema said he planned to take Rawula ‘to the cleaners’ for the allegations made on social media last week.

“I’m suing your friend [Rawula] R1m for having said I stole the EFF money. It’s [lawsuit] not an EFF initiative, it’s between me and him. And I’m taking him to the cleaners,” the EFF leader said.

Taking to his Facebook page, Rawula accused the EFF leadership (Julius Malema and Floyd Shivambu) of using party millions to fund their expensive lifestyles.

Rawula claimed that Malema and Shivambu had allegedly taken more than R35m belonging to the party for personal use.

This money, according to Rawula, includes R25m the EFF gets from the National Assembly, R10m membership funds, R1.7m from councillors’ contributions, as well more than R400,000 contributions by the MPs.

Malema has now called on Rawula to produce evidence to back his allegations, adding that he (Malema) would be willing to present the party’s financial documents to the court if called upon to do so.

“… and if a court says to me ‘produce the bank statements to prove that you are not taking the EFF money’, I will do that. I’m prepared to do that. I’m prepared to be under the lifestyle audit of a credible institution to demonstrate that I take no money of the EFF, nothing. So I’m not scared, I’m taking him to the cleaners and my lawyers are in contact with him. We have already finalised the summons against him and we’re proceeding as such.”