Lobby group AfriForum on Thursday announced its intention to prosecute Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema if the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) did not reinstate the case against Malema for fraud and tender corruption in the On-Point Engineering matter.

On-Point, in which AfriForum says Malema’s family trust has a vested interest, was appointed in 2009 by the Limpopo Department of Roads and Transport to assist with infrastructure development, maintenance and planning and, while carrying out these functions, received bribes from successful tenderers.

AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel said no one was above the law.

“We will make sure that he is brought to book. We cannot understand why this is taking so long,” said Kriel.

Head of AfriForum’s Private Prosecuting Unit advocate Gerrie Nel said they were keen to prosecute privately and added that their interest was to make sure that no one was shielded from the law because of their political affiliations.

“There must be a reason why the NPA decided not to prosecute. We are focusing on such cases because of who the people are and their connections. We can only deal with the cases once the NPA has decided not to prosecute. These are the only matters available to us where people are shielded from prosecution,” Nel explained.

AfriForum laid a case against Malema at the Brooklyn police station Pretoria on July 24, 2011 in terms of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act, 2004 (Act No 12 of 2004) in connection with On-Point’s corrupt activities.

The matter was struck from the role in the Polokwane High Court after one of Malema’s co-accused could not attend the hearing due to illness.

AfriForum says due to the NPA’s failure to act further, it had sent the NPA a letter demanding that the prosecution be reinstated. The NPA replied that the reinstatement of charges against Malema was being considered and that a final decision would be taken by August.

Kriel dismissed the allegations that it was after Malema following EFF’s much publicised call for expropriation of land without compensation.

Malema replied to the news of AfriForum’s intention to prosecute him via his twitter account and said that no white man would decide his fate.

Nel said he was not in a position to respond to Malema’s tweet because he did not get into personal discussions with any accusee.

“I will not respond to any of these matters even if they are personal,” he said.

Kriel said if the NPA simply did their job without letting politics play a role, there would be no need for a private prosecution.

Kriel added that the case was also in the public interest as South Africans, including AfriForum members, pay tax.

“Double standards doesn’t lie with AfriForum, it lies with the NPA,” he said.

Nel said that while a thorough investigation on the matter was not undertaken, a superficial investigation was conducted to see if the matter qualified to be taken on by his unit.

Nel concluded that his unit was at the mercy of the NPA on whether to prosecute or not.

“If they say they will not prosecute tomorrow, we will go ahead,” he concluded.