Julius Malema made weekend-paper headlines again. This time, however, it wasn't for his witty comebacks and veiled attacks on fellow politicians. Instead, this time Julius was under the spotlight regarding his lavish lifestyle and how he can afford it. It is widely reported that Julius earns a relatively cosy salary from the ANC Youth League. It was unclear, given that the salary was around R20k a month, how Julius was able to afford over 3 million rand in properties and luxury cars in excess of millions of rand.

This prompted journalists to dig further. It was subsequently discovered that the beloved ANCYL prez has been doing a bit of moonlighting on the side. Well, a bit is probably as much as an understatement as referring to a corpse as a "bit" dead. In fact, it may be more accurate to refer to Julius as a company director moonlighting as the ANCYL president.

Julius apparently owns a R3.6m house in Sandown and a R1m home in Polokwane. I didn’t know they had houses that cost that much there either. To get to these "cheap" ^{(See 1 Below)} homes after rousing the crowds, he needs a R734000 Mercedes-Benz AMG, a R1.2M Range Rover sport and an Aston Martin. Not bad for the son of a domestic worker!

Julius spoke at Wits University last week. I went (on behalf of Facepalm) with a work colleague, but after about an hour of waiting for the arrival of the man himself we decided to leave, as we each had other engagements to get to. However, even though we missed Julius and what must have been a magnificent entrance, I was amazed at the jubilant spirit and electric mood of the people attending this event. The army of sweaty bodies all moving in a rhythmic unity while singing and chanting in absolute sync was incredible to behold first-hand.

When attending these rallies or, as this one was labelled, debates, you realise something very quickly. Julius may be an outspoken, obnoxious, arrogant and oft-ridiculed man in the media... but to the masses of dancing chanting vuvuzela wielding young - and truth be told: some not so young - supporters, Julius Malema is a rock god. And whatever the media serves up - whether battered and deep fried or slimy and raw - matters not: Julius Malema is here to stay. And I would like to thank him for sticking around.

^1. Julius Malema actually said these houses are "cheap"!

Today our cheap houses, which are funded by banks, are shown all over the papers - the strategy is to silence us

UPDATE!

Julius told a spin press conference a few minutes ago that he doesn't own multiple cars, but in fact just a Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG. Care to tell us who owns that expensive Range Rover sport that you were wearing on the way to the Wits debate last week?

UPDATE 2!

And the hits just keep on coming! Julius has now come out saying he resigned from the companies and doesn't earn anything from these...

Since my election as president of the ANC Youth League in 2008, I instructed my lawyers to process my resignations from all these corporations and companies... when I was based in Limpopo province

Now come on Julius... we all know you did as well in Maths as a goat with one eye would. I bet the goat would be able to carve a plank better than you, but seriously, if you're only earning an ANCYL wage then how are you affording the rock star lifestyle? Appearance fees? Oh wait... maybe someone is paying you off... have you slept with Tiger?

UPDATE 3!!
Now it turns out Julius thinks he resigned, but according to official company records, he is still a director at the companies involved. This is just getting messy now... One has to wonder how big a hole this rabbit will dig himself.