Malema: Money, Power, Patronage by Micah Reddy and Pauli van Wyk

ISBN: 9780624090823

Publisher: Tafelberg, September 2025

Paperback, 372 pages

Over the past two decades, Malema has leveraged his growing political clout to bankroll his party and amass a personal fortune. In this revealing book, investigative journalists Micah Reddy and Pauli van Wyk follow the money, demonstrating how Malema built his fiefdom.

They unearth astounding details about Malema’s old, seemingly forgotten scandals in Limpopo, where he and his cronies duped not only the public, but also each other. They trace how loot from the VBS Bank found its way to Malema and Floyd Shivambu, and expose their Economic Freedom Fighters’ rent-seeking in the metros of Johannesburg and Tshwane. The book shows how, over the years, Malema has refined his modus operandi, making it difficult for South Africa’s justice system to hold him accountable.

But it also tells a bigger story: About the insidious ways in which money courses through South African politics and how self-styled radical leaders exploit valid grievances about inequality to enrich themselves, stealing from the very people they claim to fight for. Malema lays bare the interplay between power and wealth – and its stark threat to our democracy.