The clapback: Jacques Pauw’s open letter to Julius Malema
Jacques Pauw’s response to Malema ordering him to publicly apologise for his critical tweets is bound to cause a stir in the EFF camp…
The war of words between Jacques Pauw and Julius Malema has taken on another form as the author of the bestselling book, The President’s Keepers, clapped back at the EFF leader in an open letter.
Why has Jacques Pauw been trending?
Politics Twitter was abuzz earlier in the week with the ‘twar’ of words exchanged between Pauw and Malema.
Interesting events that occurred involving former SARS boss, Tom Moyane, and the EFF’s chairperson, Advocate Dali Mpofu, saw Pauw question the very nature of the relationship in a series of tweets.
Why is Jacques Pauw questioning the EFF?
Pauw challenged the EFF leadership’s intellectual quotient after Mpofu had announced that he would represent Moyane in the Nugent inquiry.
Moyane is currently serving his suspension after being accused of corruption and linked with illegal cigarette smuggler, Adriano Mazzotti.
What did Julius Malema say in response to Pauw?
Malema, currently part of the parliamentary committee that is overseeing the land expropriation discussions, addressed Pauw’s string of tweets in a recent press conference.
He then took it to Twitter, describing Pauw as having a “wrinkled white small mind” and ordering him to apologize or face legal action.
Your wrinkled white small mind 🥜 is failing you or old age, who’s defending #TomMoyane? We will never support injustice against anyone including #PravinGordan. When injustice was meted against Pravin, we defended him not because he was our friend but because he was treated badly
— Julius Sello Malema (@Julius_S_Malema) July 2, 2018
Shortly after the spate of tweets from Malema, Pauw rocked social media when he released an open letter addressed to the EFF leader. The letter is a structural response to every allegation that Malema has denied about his ties with Mazzotti.
What is revealed in Jacques Pauw’s open letter?
In the letter, Pauw stands corrected about who loaned Malema money to pay his hefty tax bill. Instead, he introduces another figure that is a partner of Mazzotti, stating that it was, in fact, him who gave Malema the money.
Pauw states that “you in fact received R1-million loan from Kyle Phillips – a business partner of Mazzotti and his co-director in Carnilinx, an independent tobacco company”.
The gravity of the allegations Pauw makes against Malema in this open letter is sure to set forth an interesting exchange between the EFF leader and the famed author. Malema has not yet been quoted with a response to the letter.