The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) president Julius Malema has not breached any law or code of ethics by being involved in business, the ruling ANC said on Sunday.

In response to Sunday reports detailing Malema's involvement in businesses that received government tenders in Limpopo of up to R140-million, spokesperson Brian Sokutu said that the youth leader was not at fault.

"The ANC has noted Sunday reports detailing Comrade Julius Malema's interests, but Comrade Malema is neither a Member of Parliament or a Cabinet Minister and he has therefore not breached any law or code of ethics by being involved in business," he said.

But Sokutu added that the ANC was still "grumbling" with an idea of coming up with a code of conduct to be adhered to by its senior cadres who have business interests.

Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille said that Malema should stop pretending to represent the poor when he was living in opulence earned from the poor and ordinary taxpayers in a society plagued by the worst inequalities in the world.

"While the majority continue to be marginalised and ill-treated, the very few Malemas of our country are cashing in on their misery," De Lille said.

She called on the South African Revenue Service to "tell us if Malema has paid his taxes".

"It is very difficult to give him the benefit of the doubt when he has already lied about what he earns, saying he was a middle income earner and making millions from government tenders," she said.

The Democratic Alliance Youth said the fact that Malema's companies did not complete the jobs as tasked highlighted the problem with government tenders being allocated to "cronies."

This, it said, came at the expense of the majority, "since they are provided to those who are well connected, rather than those with the skills to deliver services to the people."

The ANC Youth League in Mpumalanga criticised media for embarking on what it called a campaign to "cast aspersions on the integrity" of Malema.

It said that Malema's business interests were justified by the aspirations of the Freedom Charter.

The charter said: "All people shall have equal rights to trade where they choose, to manufacture and to enter all trades, crafts and professions."

The Northern Cape Youth League dismissed newspaper reports into Malema's lifestyle as a gross misrepresentation of facts.

"The scurrility of these reports is a sad reflection on the absurd state of journalism in this country which has gone to the gutters."

The Gauteng league blamed the sudden interest in Malema's lifestyle to forces within the organisation that wanted to "to deflect our attention from both policy (nationalisation) and leadership articulation."

The ANCYL responded by calling a media conference to be addressed by Malema and other top officials on Monday.

According to Rapport newspaper, the Congress of the People was the first to raise the question in the Limpopo legislature after it found out that Malema had 21 tenders from eight of the province's municipalities.

Details of Malema's lavish lifestyle were first reported in the Star newspaper on Friday.

The newspaper reported that Malema bought a three-bedroom home in Sandown for R3,6-million and a R1-million mansion in Polokwane, which he allegedly both bought for cash.

The newspaper also quoted sources in the youth league saying Malema earned R20 000 a month.

At the same time that the transfer of the Sandown house went through, Malema attended a press conference in a Gucci suit, and sported a Breitling watch worth about R250 000, the newspaper reported.

Malema told the Sunday Times that he drew a salary only from the ANC. He reportedly refused to discuss his business dealings saying "that is none of your business".

City Press reported on Sunday that SGL Engineering, was a company that Malema and his business partner, Lesiba Cuthbert Gwangwa, 31, owned.

The company has won tenders for road construction, street paving, sewer reticulation, bulk water supply, landfill sites, cemeteries, central business district updates and provision of drainage systems.

Some of the contracts held by the company also included eight tenders worth R66,4-million from Mopani district municipality for construction of roads and the building of a fire station and sewer reticulation in the Modjadji area.

Five contracts valued at R28-million from Tzaneen municipality for upgrading the CBD, a cemetery and multipurpose centre were also awarded to Malema.

Another was a R27,9-million street-paving contract from the Greater Letaba municipality.

Zwelinzima Vavi, general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) recently called for a "lifestyle audit" of all Cabinet ministers, director generals and deputy director generals to determine why they can afford to have "more than one mansion", holiday homes and to take expensive holidays.

However, President Jacob Zuma, said in his interview with the Sunday Times: "How we could effect that I am not sure."

"It has not been discussed with me. People might say why do you audit some and not society in broader terms. But workers have the right to make the call. We have not sat down [with Cosatu) to discuss it," Zuma was quoted as saying. The Limpopo provincial government could not be reached for comment.